Title: Love Begets Love
love begets love
John 21:15-17
July 20, 2007 (Fri) Tel Aviv Joppa Church- Evening Retreat for All Church Members
May I read an article?
"My age
At thirty and two
I am in love.
when we break up
Because I want to see you
chest ache
Nice to meet you
with only love
The whole world has enough sheep,
That's why I hate parting
I love you like that.
with your smile
Crying becomes laughter
Just thinking of you
heartbreaking,
惠明
happy with that name
I love you like that.
(intermediate omitted)
How is it? like poetry? I'm really embarrassed to read it. I think of it as a poem, but it was written to my wife when we were dating. I am not a person who is rich in poetry, but when I fall in love, poetry comes out naturally.
Love has a very seductive power. When you love, you become a poet, when you love, you gain strength that you did not have. When you love, you laugh and laugh over nothing. When you love, you can make sacrifices generously. When you love, you can even take your own life. You can even give it away.
But that's it. You know this love was our human nature. Humanity depends on the presence or absence of this love.
In the movie World Trade Center, police officers who were sent to rescue lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks are trapped as the building collapses. Among them, two of them were alive while lying on a pile of buildings, and it is a film based on a true story of the process until these two were rescued. A black police officer saw Jesus in a state of death that was bewildering, and he was rescued shortly thereafter.
There is this monologue at the end of the film. "We saw the duality of man in 911. We saw man's demonicity and man's humanity." What is human demonism? A heart that refuses to love and is only filled with hate and hatred. What is humanity? It is a heart that understands the suffering of others and knows how to make sacrifices for others, a heart of love.
The presence or absence of humanity is the presence or absence of love. Therefore, the restoration of humanity lies in the restoration of love, which is human nature. A person whose love has been fully restored is a person whose humanity has been restored. Why is love human nature? This is because when God created man, it is love that he gave from man.
Genesis 1:27 says, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." God made all animals according to their kinds, but only man was made in the image of God Himself. This word does not simply refer to the shape of the body, it refers to its nature. In other words, God created man by putting the nature of God as it is. So, people have free will, the ability to think, and the property of seeking ethical and just things. These are things you won't find in any other animal.
So, man has received various things of God from God, and the most characteristic and representative nature among them is love. Why is love the most characteristic and representative nature received from God? Because God is love. There are many words that can express God. Almighty, all-powerful, Creator, God of justice... But if I could sum it up in one word, it would be love. God of love. The Bible emphasizes this over and over again. "God is love." When God created man, he made it in his own image, and at the center of that image was love. Because the divine nature of love was given to man, man can have fellowship with God.
Love is more than just a feeling. When we think of love, we tend to think of certain emotions, hot and strange emotions, but love is more than emotions. Love is the deepest communion with person and person. Love makes deep fellowship possible. This is true both in our relationship with people and in our relationship with God. Because God has given man love, which is the nature of his nature, man can have a deep personal communion with God. Look at Adam and Eve before they sinned. Due to the pure and noble nature of love they received from God, the two shared a relationship of deep love for each other's personalities. This is what it means to be naked but not ashamed. We shared undefiled love, not just sexual desire, but deep understanding of the other person's personality and loving the other person as if they were our own. And without any obstacles in our relationship with God, we shared a relationship of deep love like a lover. This is because love is an attribute of God, and man has received that love as it is.
But this love is starting to get dirty. Because of good and evil and events. Many people ask questions about the tree of knowledge. I have a lot of questions. However, this tree of good and evil was the minimum promise that must be kept in the relationship of love between God and man. Just because you love them doesn't mean you can't do anything to them. Although we are lovers, there is a minimum promise that we must keep. In fact, if you love, you will respect the other person more. That's why 1 Corinthians 13 says, "Love is not rude."
In the case of a lover or a couple, having a relationship with someone other than the spouse is breaking the relationship between the two people who are in love. It is the breaking of a covenant made in love. The price must be paid by the person who destroys it, but the damage is greater for the spouse than the person who destroys it. The Fruit of Good and Evil is just that. The relationship between God and man is a relationship of love. In order to keep that love, there was one contract that must be kept, and that is the tree of knowledge. It was the man who broke it, and he had to pay the price. The price was death. "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 1:17).
The price of breaking the covenant of love was death. But God himself breaks the covenant. God is the one who does not falsify and He always keeps His promises. The Bible also testifies to that. However, there are times when God cannot keep this. Before him, that strict definition weakens. What is? That's love. God is weak in the face of love. Even the strict justice of God loses its strength. The price of breaking the covenant of love was death, but God did not kill people. Of course, the destruction brought physical death to humans, but He did not inflict the death penalty right away. And you have provided a way to live forever. That way is to believe in Jesus Christ.
God took Adam and Eve, who sinned, in the Garden of Eden.