VICTORIOUS Love

VICTORIOUS Love might sound a little over-the-top, right?  I mean, it fits the Easter sermon series theme of VICTORIOUS, doesn’t it?  I think that this phrase is a good start, but doesn’t quite touch the meaning. Let me tell you what it doesn’t look like – God doesn’t expect you to pay for your sins or anyone else’s for that matter.  My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.  Jesus was going to die for our sins – we can’t go there.  We may want to, but we can’t.

Let me give you an example.  It’s Mother’s Day next Sunday.  Have you called her lately?  Let say that you do the unthinkable and forget you mother – no flowers, no card, no phone call.  You realize this the day after and feel awful.  But instead of simply calling her and apologizing, you send her double the flowers, a giant 81/2” x 11” card, and a singing telegram.  And you tell yourself that you have made up for forgetting mother’s day!  Making up for the messes we make in life is NOT a demonstration of the new love Jesus commands.  Remember you can’t make up for something wrong that you’ve done.  You can be forgiven – Jesus has done that completely.  A demonstration of that new love would be your mother saying I forgive you and I still love you even though you forgot me on Mother’s Day.

A demonstration of Jesus’ new love would be still loving pizza after it gave you food poisoning.  Still loving the Minnesota Vikings after they lose all their games and move to Iowa.  Putting on a pair of shoes that gives you blisters and continuing to wear them in spite of the pain.  Jesus’ new love means that you would never leave you job no matter the working conditions or how much they cut your pay.  Using Jesus’ definition of love in a marriage means that you could never stop loving your spouse.  I know that some of these examples are ridiculous.  God doesn’t ask you to eat poisonous food, watch football, wear shoes that don’t fit, or ever stay in an unhealthy work environment.  God says that the love in a Christian marriage is an application of Jesus’ new love.

Want to hear more, including the story of the ugliest dog in the world?  Watch this Sunday’s message from John 13, VICTORIOUS Love.