Day 36 – Loving Like Jesus Loved

Tuesday August 28

Deep in the heart of every human being is the longing to be truly deeply known and fully accepted for who we are.  This longing for true communion is as old as the garden of Eden.  When God was creating the heavens and earth and all that was in them, there was only one thing he pronounced was not good:  “it is not good that man should be alone”. 

In the Garden Adam experienced perfect communion: being completely known and accepted by His God and another human being (Eve) – he was naked and not ashamed.  But with the fall, this communion was broken and Adam suddenly felt the need to cover himself in front of Eve and hide himself from God.

Ever since sin entered the world, the pain of not being known and/or being misunderstood has driven the majority of human conflict.  The closer we feel to someone, the greater the expectation of being known and the deeper the pain of being disappointed.   “He should have known I would never say something like that!  “How could she not know that I wanted that?” 

We all know that Jesus sacrifice on the Cross was meant to re-establish the communion of God and man that was lost when Adam sinned.  But the power of redemption was not meant to stop there.  The sacrifice of Jesus was also intended to restore communion between humankind.  That’s why Jesus could say to us 

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35

Jesus could command us to love one another because He knew there is a power in redemption that can restore our ability to love like He loves and to walk in true communion and oneness as believers.

Yet most of us struggle to love as Jesus loved - perfectly, selflessly, unconditionally. We struggle because we have never been fully restored in our communion with God and so we cannot be fully restored in our communion one with another.

The degree to which we are truly free to love as Jesus loved is the degree to which the need to be known and fully accepted has been met in our relationship/communion with God.  If it is not fully met, then our love for other people will never be selfless or unconditional. It will always come with “strings attached”; expectations we place on people to make us feel known and understood.  If others fail to meet our expectations or misunderstand or hurt us then we find ourselves hindered from loving freely as we know we ought.

Throughout this consecration call we have talked about the importance of knowing God, of receiving deep within our spirits a revelation of who He is.  But equally important for us being able to walk as Jesus walked, is for us to receive a deep revelation that we are known by God.

But the man who loves God is known by God. 1 Corinthians 8:3

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD…If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:1-4; 11-16

And being fully known we are fully accepted and fully loved.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-7

If we do not come first to the place where this need to be known is fully satisfied by Christ, our true communion with each other will remain broken and incomplete. Maybe we are tempted to hide ourselves from others because of the fear of being misunderstood or rejected. Or perhaps we live the unsatisfying life of projecting images of who we think others need or want us to be in order to feel accepted.  But any acceptance we do receive in this way is hollow; it fails to touch or satisfy that need to be known because the real us still lies hidden beneath the surface. In still other cases, we may find ourselves bound in unhealthy ties with other people, desperately seeking to find ourselves, our sense of worth, in their eyes. 

But as we come to the place of being fully known and fully embraced in Christ, we find the freedom to love as Jesus loved: without expectations based on our own needs and free from the fear of misunderstanding.  That doesn’t mean it won’t hurt us still if we are rejected or misunderstood.  But it will not cripple us or hinder our ability to love.  Even when people hate us, or abuse us, or misunderstand us, or malign us our love will remain because it will no longer be based on what we get but only what we have already received.

God wants to build from our lives and within His body, chains of love – hearts that are linked in God-ordained relationships one with another.   But the first step to seeing this is a step of faith – the Lord is asking us to “leap into the Great Known” – to a whole new dimension of knowing God and being known by Him.  No longer will the affirmation of men be the “food” that satisfies the hunger in our souls  Instead our need will be satisfied, satiated by being fully known and embraced by the Lord.  This revelation will open doors of healing and will free us to enter into a divine depth of relationship that we cannot even imagine.   

When the church of Jesus Christ begins to truly love one another and see the restoration of the communion that God intended from the beginning of time, our oneness will stir the eternity that God has placed in the hearts of unbelievers.  Not only will they know we are Christians by our love for one another, but the prayer of Jesus in John 17 will finally be answered:

May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Let’s pray this prayer together:  God I thank You that before I existed, you framed my life together, you knit me together in my mother’s womb and you ordained every one of my days.  Nothing about me is hidden from you and nothing that I think or say or do is a surprise to you - you know it all.  God I declare that Your word is truth: I was chosen in love to be adopted by you before the world began. 

Father, I ask You to open my heart and flood it with your light of revelation.  I don’t only want to know you, but I want that deep assurance of being known and loved by You that will bring a rest to my soul and will free my heart to love as You love.  God fill me to overflowing with Your love so that as I have freely received I may freely give. 

God I thank you that in redemption You have purchased so much – the restoration of my total communion with You and the restoration of my communion with others in Your body.  Jesus I declare that the time has come to see your prayer answered that we might be one even as You and the Father are one – that the world might believe.  Let it be unto us according to Your word oh God!  In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen!