God’s Love is a
Regardless Love
God
loves you… regardless. That doesn’t mean
he just looks over your sins. In fact,
he doesn’t like that you’re a sinner at all.
He hates that you’re a sinner!
But he loves you regardless of your sins and your faults and your
inadequacies. Just like he loved King
David, a man who admitted, “Surely I was
sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” And we’d have to admit the same thing. Which means that we not only act sinfully and
we not only worked our way into sinfulness over a period of time; but we have
been filled with sin from the womb.
Which is why the apostle Paul said many years later that we were all at
one time “enemies of God” (Rom. 5:10)
and “by nature objects of [God’s] wrath”
(Eph. 2:3). The prophet Isaiah
observed that “all our righteous acts
are like filthy rags” (Is. 64:6), and even the Lord himself all the way
back during the time of Noah and the Great Flood lamented the fact that “every inclination of a person’s heart is
evil from childhood” (Gen. 8:21). So
even a child from the moment it is born is riddled with sin. Sin that condemns; sin that desperately needs
to be forgiven. And so that child is
brought to the font. Water is used. And the words are said, “I baptize you in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And what happens? In one miraculous moment that child is
forgiven - all of those sins it was born with are washed away. Because baptism is “a washing of rebirth and
renewal” according to Scripture. It is a
way in which the Lord connects that child with his death and resurrection; it
is a physical means through which he clothes that child with Christ himself so
that this child is seen by the Father as pure and holy instead of nasty and
sinful. What love! What grace!
What power! Regardless of the
inbred sinfulness of that child; regardless of the fact that the child had been
God’s enemy and an object of his wrath by the very nature of things; regardless
of all of the evil that sin made that child to be and all of the evil that the child
would do, God poured out his love on that child anyway. God loves… regardless. Because that’s the kind of love God has: Regardless
Love.
And, of
course, these promises of baptism are not just for children; they are for all
people, both young and old. Because
God’s Regardless Love is for all people.
Regardless of the terrible life someone has led, regardless of the
reoccurring sin that is committed over and over and over again, regardless of
the insolence and the rebellion of youth or the distain and the pessimism of
the more mature, regardless of your guilt, regardless of your stubbornness,
regardless of who you are, God pours out his love on you anyway - by his blood,
by his cross, by the sacrifice of his Son.
And that forgiveness is given to you through ways and means that are
simple and accessible and effective. God
loves you… regardless. Because the only
love the Lord knows is Regardless Love.
Our Love is a Conditional Love
The
reason we are focusing on Jesus’ love for us is because that is the example he
wants us to follow. The Lord expects the
same kind of love from those he loves!
But not just any kind of love.
Not an “I-like-that” kind of love.
Not a mushy feeling kind of love.
Not a conditional kind of love.
But a Regardless Love. We are to
show a love to others just like the love that Christ has shown to us. So it’s a big love, isn’t it? It’s a complete love, a self-sacrificing kind
of love, an all-inclusive love. And near
the end of the book of Ephesians, the Lord gives us several directions on how
we are to put that love into practice.
“Submit to one another out of reverence for
Christ” this section begins. “Oh,
but Lord,” we automatically say. “We’re
supposed to submit to others? We’re
supposed to step back and just go with what other people want as long as it’s
not directly against your Word! But
other people are so annoying and weird and all they care about is themselves! Maybe I’ll start showing love by submitting
to them if they start acting a little more loving to me. But not now.
“Wives,” the Lord continues, “submit to your husbands as to the Lord…
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their
husbands in everything.” “Oh, but
Lord,” wives might be tempted to think.
“I have to submit to my husband?
I have step back and go with what he wants? But he has had a history of making
bone-headed decisions! He doesn’t care
about me; all he cares about is himself!
Maybe I’ll start showing my love to him by submitting if he starts treating
me a little better. But not now.”
“Husbands,” the Lord addresses next, “love your wives, just as Christ loved the
church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the
washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant
church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” “Oh, but Lord,” any conscientious husband
might complain. “That’s impossible! I’m supposed to love my wife just like you
have loved me! But she’s so unlovable at
times! She doesn’t pay any attention to
me and she cares only about herself!
Maybe I’ll start showing her the kind of love that you have shown to me if
she starts to keep her end of the bargain.
But not now.”
“Children,” the Lord continues, “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is
right.” “Oh, but Lord,” children
have been saying for thousands of years.
“My parents don’t understand me!
They are so unfair! They don’t
really care about what I want and about what I think! They only care about making me do what they
want me to do! Maybe I’ll start showing
love to them by my obedience if they ever start listening to me. But not now.”
“Fathers,” the Lord turns to (and might
we also add: mothers, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas…), “do not exasperate (frustrate) your
children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” “Oh, but Lord,” adults have been saying as
long as there have been kids in this world.
“These children are so frustrating to me! They don’t listen! They don’t care! And being nice doesn’t work! Maybe I’ll start showing a little more love
to them by being patient and forgiving if they start to show me a little bit of
respect. But not now.”
And we
could go on and on, couldn’t we? We
could go on with all of the people that we are supposed to show love to but
don’t. Because sadly the type of love
that we offer to others is conditional.
“If they love me or if they prove themselves to be loveable,
then I will love them back.” But that’s
not the kind of love the Lord asks of us, is it? He doesn’t ask of us a conditional love. He asks of us a regardless love. Regardless of who that person is, regardless
of what that person does, regardless of whether that person loves you back or
not: Love. That’s it.
And I
don’t know about you, but my reaction to that is: “I can’t! I can’t, Lord! I haven’t done it in the past, I don’t do it
right now, and no matter how hard I try I know that I won’t be able to do it in
the future! I’m incapable of loving with
a regardless kind of love! I’m not that
self-sacrificing! I’m just not that
loving!” And what does the Lord say to
me in response? How does he deal with my
inabilities and my selfishness and my sinfulness? All my Lord says is this, “I forgive you
because I love you anyway… regardless.”
God’s Love is
Not a Reaction
That’s
one of the most beautiful things about the Lord’s Regardless Love: it not a
reaction. The Lord’s love is not a
reaction to anything - as opposed to our kind of love. A teenager might say, “I love that roller
coaster.” But he wouldn’t say that
before he ever rides on it. Only after
he rides on a roller coaster would he say that he loves it because that roller
coaster was fun and thrilling and a rush.
His love is a reaction to what he received. Or you might overhear a woman at restaurant say,
“I love that soup.” But she wouldn’t say
that without ever trying it first. Only
after she tastes the soup will she say that she loves it because it is filled
with flavor and pleasing to her senses.
Her love is a reaction to what she received. Even with people our love is like that. It’s easier to love someone who loves you;
it’s easier to love someone who earns our love.
Our love is a reaction to something good that person or thing has
supplied us with. But not the
Lord’s. The Lord’s love for us is never
a reaction. The Lord’s love is an action
that always comes first and always remains to the last.
Consider
what is said about the Lord’s love at the very beginning of the book of
Ephesians: “In love he predestined us to
be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:5). His love couldn’t be a reaction then because
he decided beforehand to adopt us before we were ever born! Or consider what is said about his love in 1 John 3:1: “How great is the love the
Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” His love is not a reaction here either
because remember that we were at one time God’s enemies and by nature objects
of his wrath. We had done nothing to
make him want to love us and we can do nothing to make him want to love us
either. Or think of the words said just
a few chapters later by the apostle John: “This
is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins” (4:10).
Before we existed, before we knew him, before we believed in him, he
loved us. And even now, after we have
been brought to faith in our Savior and even though we still sin and we still
mess up and we still fall flat on our faces at times, he still loves us! His love is never a reaction. It is his initial action. And so it is always constant, steady, and never
ending. Our Lord will always love us…
regardless.
Our Love is a Thankful Love
Now we can look at a section of
the Bible like Ephesians 5-6 in a different way: The Lord’s Regardless Love is
the motivation for our attempts at a regardless kind of love: “Submit to one
another out of reverence for the Lord…
Wives submit to your husband as the Church submits to Christ… Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church… Children, obey your parents in the Lord… Parents, bring up your children in
the training and instruction of the Lord.” Notice whom this section keeps pointing us
to: the Lord and his love! That is our
motivation. That is the reason why we
want to try to keep these instructions from our God: because of his love for
us. And so even if we cannot demonstrate
a perfect Regardless Love, we can at least make it a Thankful Love! Thankful for the Lord, thankful for what he
has done, thankful for what he has sacrificed, thankful for the forgiveness
that he has freely given, thankful for the means through which he makes it
available to us, thankful for his grace, his mercy, his patience, thankful for
his love. Because when we practice a
Thankful Love to our Lord, what that other person is or who that other person
is doesn’t matter so much. You are
ultimately loving that person for the Lord’s sake and not theirs, for the
Lord’s glory and not your own.
Now I
don’t want you leaving church this morning feeling guilty. Because it is certainly true that a
Christian’s love is not a perfect love, it’s not a reliable love, and it’s
certainly not a Regardless Love. But
know this: at those times when you realize how unloving you have been, how
mean-spirited, how cruel, how selfish, how out-of-line, how worthless, your God
says this: I forgive you, you are still my child, and I love you anyway…
regardless.
Amen.
“To him who loves
us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom
and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and
ever! Amen.” - Rev. 1:5-6
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