Love in the In-Between - Devotion 5
What Now?
You are now two days removed from Christmas. Perhaps you have said goodbye to the family that was visiting, or maybe you are still with family. Some of you reading this are over-achievers and have already started taking down the Christmas decorations. Quick question, “What is the longest you have ever left up your Christmas decorations?” I believe the record for the longest the Yates family has left up decorations was Valentine’s Day. Hey, you only get them for a short time each year, and we decided to enjoy them for as long as we could!
As I mentioned yesterday, these days after Christmas seem so different for me and possibly for you. We have just had this big celebration about who Jesus is, and we have new toys to play with (kids and adults) that will probably lose their luster over the next six months. There is a question that always comes to my mind during this time: “How are you going to be different because of the celebration of Christmas this year?”
I am writing today’s devotional in the middle of a heat wave in June. I have planted myself in a Starbucks, and I am watching people. (Caffeine and the bustle of a Starbucks really help me focus. I am sure some of you just shrieked and thought, “No way!”) We have been talking about the love that Jesus has for us and what love truly is, and today, I have been watching people come in and out for their Starbucks fix. I have been gripped by the thought that so many people are hurting. At the most basic level, people want to be fully known and completely loved. Consider those ideas for a minute: fully known and completely loved.
Many people have walked in and out, mainly just to get their coffee and go along with their day. Every person that I have seen today is loved by God in the middle of their in-between. A young man walked in about ten minutes ago dressed in feminine clothing. We could talk about the reality of our culture, but I do not want to digress into all that may entail. What I want to focus on is the person behind the issues that we face today. As I saw him walk into the coffee shop, my initial reaction was, “A man in feminine clothing, that is so weird.” Then, I looked again, and I saw a young man who wanted to be fully known and completely loved for who he was. I do not know his story, and I have never spoken to this young man; however, we are all trying to figure out who we are, what we should be doing, what our place is in the world, and how we will get there.
In the process, we desire to be fully known. Each one of us wants to be fully known by someone. It involves all of our dreams, desires, emotions, hobbies, struggles, and faults. When we are fully known like this, that is disarming, and it is also the place where we can be vulnerable. Thus, our desire to be completely loved stands in front of being fully known. Can we be loved if someone knows all of that about us? We do not always love ourselves because of what we know about ourselves.
So, we hide. We do not let others know completely who we are, though we wish we could. We hide behind issues, politics, socio-economic structures, and groups that agree with what we think we want. In fact, some of us even hide behind Jesus and act like we have it all together when we know that we do not.
Here is what I am getting at today: How we stand on truth is as important as the truth we stand on.
John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Ephesians 4:14-15 adds, “So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
My friend, so often, we Jesus-followers are known more for what we are against than what we are for. This is because we are better at “truthing” than we are at loving. Paul is literally saying that we need to be “truthing” as we love. Jesus was full of grace and truth. He was not 50% truth and 50% love; He was 100% both. We must love as we stand on truth. Truth includes love, and love includes truth. The love of Jesus has changed you if you know Him as your Savior and the truth of Jesus has saved you. When we really think about it, though, you cannot have one without the other in the Gospel!
Randy Alcorn said it so well, “Attempts to ‘soften’ the gospel by minimizing truth keep people from Jesus. Attempts to ‘toughen’ the gospel by minimizing grace keep people from Jesus. It’s not enough for us to offer grace or truth. We must offer both. When we offend everybody, we’ve declared truth without grace. When we offend nobody, we’ve watered down truth in the name of grace. John 1:14 tells us Jesus came full of grace AND truth. Let’s not choose between them, but be characterized by both.”
People want to be fully known and completely loved. Jesus does both at the cross and in His resurrection. His love is transformative, and His truth changes eternal destinies. As we look forward to this New Year, how can you love in truth and truth in love? Who around you needs to be loved in truth? Jesus is coming back for His second advent, and we are living in the in-between. People are hurting and need to see Jesus in us.
How will the love of Jesus change how you love the people around you in this year?
What now? We turn to the first and second commandments that Jesus called us all to. I am looking forward to diving into what is next in our last week together this Christmas season.