“Why should I trust you?”
“Because I love you.”
This brief interaction describes many situations in this life where one person asks another to take their hand, whether literally or figuratively, for their own sake. As the prior guides the latter, out of love, the latter begins to realize that the prior truly meant what they said. Two things happen as all of this transpires: the latter person is delivered and both enjoy a deeper kinship as the love between them flourishes.
Trust is the hard-fought-for result of love. Love, in its purest form, is the most trustworthy expression of all.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
— Romans 13:8-10
What happens when the aforementioned deliverance involves real danger? What happens when love is screaming, “Take my hand, now!”? What happens when the lover is trying to rescue the loved from peril? Does the otherwise polite request turn into a demand? Might we say that when love becomes protective it commands obedience? In light of said danger, might we agree that this is not only acceptable behavior, but desirable? I mean, how real is a love that sits idly by while others perish? I say it isn’t love at all; rather, something else, since, as they say, “the proof is in the pudding.”
If you’ve ever been the recipient of a command given from a root of love, then you know exactly what I’m writing about. You look back from your position of deliverance and are flooded with overwhelming gratitude towards the one who loved you enough to save you from your own blindness. They say ‘hindsight is twenty-twenty’; but what good is hindsight if you’re dead?
One of the greatest blessings of love is that it often functions as someone else’s eyesight while they are still blind.
The greatest example of what I write about here is God’s command to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While we were too blind to see, the good Lord reached out and said, “Trust me.” Maybe the first few times He did so, you vehemently refused. However, eventually, if you’re reading this blog, you likely took His hand and He delivered you from certain death. How grateful are you in retrospect? As you learn about the horrors of spiritual death in Holy Scripture, how much more do you love Him? Are you at all upset that He commanded you to believe? Do you say, “How dare anyone tell me what to do!”? Or are you swaddled in gratitude forevermore, knowing that it was unfettered love that saved you?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
— John 3:16
God sent His Son for a reason; to accomplish His good will in us. Love commanded us to obey for our own good, even when we were too blind to see the magnanimity of being reconciled to God through Christ.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
— Romans 5:10-11
We might think of love as expressing itself for two reasons: to protect someone from harm or to advance them in the sphere of love. In His incarnation, Jesus, who is love, manifested both aspects to His disciples. While I encourage you to read John 14-16 on your own, for the sake of brevity, I’m going to quote several verses in this passage in order to illuminate the point of this blog. I ask that you look for a pattern (this pattern will be more evident when you read the full chapters).
Notice how first Jesus invites His disciples to believe in Him, which is tantamount to an invitation into the sphere of love.
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
— John 14:1
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
— John 14:6
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
— John 14:15
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
— John 14:21
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
— John 14:23
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
— John 15:9
Jesus then instructs His disciples how to abide in the sphere of His love. In essence, He speaks of His commandments and then reveals to them the results of obedience (my helper notes are in brackets to help you see the pattern).
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, [so that, as a result] my joy may be in you, and [so that, as a result] your joy may be full.
— John 15:10-11
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you [so that, as a result] you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, [so that, as a result] whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, [so that, as a result] you will love one another.
— John 15:16-17
Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, [so that, as a result] your joy may be full.
— John 16:24
I have said these things to you, [so that, as a result] in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
— John 16:33
If we distill Jesus’ words to His disciples in John 14-16, we find a beautiful pattern. He describes the sphere of His love to them and then commands that they join Him in it, for good reasons, namely peace, joy, and love. These are the blessings afforded to one who obeys His commands, beginning with the Gospel command. This pattern is indicative of love, itself. It cannot help but express itself - when it does, it is either protecting or advancing its recipient.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
Love never ends.
— 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Love is the most trustworthy expression of all. Its good intention is to gather you unto itself, in the sphere of God, for your benefit and to His glory. Trust Him, because He loves you.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins
