Mensa Otabil - Love Divine
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Welcome to a brand new week. Today, as you know, all over the world, or in most parts of the world, people are celebrating love. They are talking about it, expressing it, and feeling it. A lot of things will be done today in the name of love-some totally different from the concept of love and some probably in line with God’s concept of love. I felt that I should share a little bit about God’s love.
Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5: «But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ; by grace you have been saved.» God loves us, and that’s a marvelous concept, or a marvelous expression from Him. God loves us, and that’s the theme of the Bible.
When you take your Bible and read from beginning to end, you may not see the word «love» written, but you see God’s love expressed throughout the Scriptures. Even when we see His judgment, it is an expression of love to redeem us from something that is destructive. God’s love is what prompted creation. He created us because He loved us, and after He had created us, He loved us so much that He gave us the freedom to choose whether to love Him back or not to love Him at all. God could have made us robots or servants of His love, but He wanted us to choose to love Him back. The Bible shows us that when we were dead in sins, when we had turned away from God, His love compelled Him to reach out to us through Christ Jesus. So this love of God is a divine love; it excels all kinds of love.
For everything you’re going to hear today, and how much the word is going to be used, when you measure it by God’s standard, you’ll find that most of the time when we talk about love, we mean something entirely different from what God means when He talks about love. The fact is, many of us cannot even believe that God loves us. The reason we can’t believe God loves us is that we always attach love to something agreeable that somebody does. If someone does something agreeable, we love them. Today, we will hear that word thrown around many times. People are going to say, «Oh, I love you, I love you,» and it’s because you are agreeable.
Not many people are going to tell an enemy that they love them, and not many people are going to approach someone who hurt them and say, «I love you.» Additionally, not many people are going to go to someone who is no longer in their lives and say, «I love you.» We tend to use that word for those who are agreeable, but that is not what we read about here in Ephesians. It states, «But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love which He had for us, even when we were dead in trespasses.» In other words, when we didn’t even have any feeling for Him, when we had no desire for Him, when we didn’t want to know Him, serve Him, or worship Him, God still pursued us with His love.
So you see how different the love of God is from our love. While we try to show love to people who are agreeable, God’s love extends to even those who are disagreeable. We can’t even contemplate the idea that God loves people we don’t love. Many times, when we don’t love someone, we think God must also not love them because we don’t like them. But God’s love reaches out to us even when we are unfeeling, dead in trespasses.
So what do we do to deserve God’s love? Nothing. We are not worthy of His love; He chooses to love us. He chooses to be kind to us and to be merciful to us, even to those who blaspheme His name, curse His name, and doubt His existence. He still loves them.
So today, if you have no one to tell you that they love you, remember God loves you. If you’re struggling with low self-esteem or feelings of unworthiness, remember that you matter to God. God loves you. So on this day, as we talk about love, know that God loves you, and that is the most important love you need in your life.
Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, I accept Your love for me. Thank you for showing me mercy and kindness. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» God loves you, and that’s all that matters. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.