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LOVE WITHOUT LIMIT
A PERSONAL JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF GOD
By Walter E. Williams Probe Publishing Company
Copyright © 2004 Walter E. Williams
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-9742463-0-1
Chapter One
What is Love?
LOVE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and important thing in life. I think it is probably the greatest dream of people in their youth, I fear it is often the greatest disappointment later in life. Maybe that disappointment comes because love is so misunderstood. When I mentioned the title of my book to people, they almost invariably thought of romantic love. Romantic love can be very beautiful and fulfilling. In this book, I wish to discuss a love even better than the best of romantic love. That love is the love of God. I will first explain the differences between these two types of love.
In Greek, there are several words, each of which we translate "love" in English. What I call romantic love is referred to in Greek by the word eros. Romantic love, or eros, is love for something or someone who is desirable, whom we like. To love someone romantically, we must like that individual and find that person desirable or attractive in some way. Nothing else makes sense.
The problem with romantic love is that people sometimes do things we do not like. Then we get angry at them. At that point, we no longer feel any romantic love for them. If they do enough things we do not like,we may stop loving them forever. This is where the agony of romantic love comes in. Even when the love seems strong and secure, there is still the worry about how long it will last. When we love each other in this romantic sense, we are always falling in and out of love, and fighting to get what we desire from the other person. In our romantic desire, we want to possess the other person, and we want the other person to fulfill our wants and desires. The fighting and heartbreak that ensues makes us wonder if love is worth it.
There is also the worry about how deep it goes. We try to put our best foot forward to impress the other person, and to win his/ her love. Then we wonder if they would love us if they knew all about us, for we all have some less desirable traits. Romantic love is a great joy, but it is also a great worry.
Romantic love is really love for oneself, more than for the other. It is like someone saying, "I love that car." What he really means is, "I love myself, and I want that car to make me happy." If he gets the car, he is happy and continues to love the car as long as it does his bidding and makes him happy. If the car starts to give him too much trouble, or if a more attractive car comes along, he stops loving that car or starts loving another. At this point, if he is able, he trades his old car in on a new model. Such is romantic love.
Romantic love and all the other loves we give and receive from each other on this earth are limited and conditional. People love us if we are desirable for one reason or another. They love us if we are not too much trouble. There always seems to be some limit to how much, or how long, they will love us. Because of that, we might assume that God's love has similar limits. God is often presented as one who loves us, but who will reject us if we do not conform to certain conditions. God loves us and He is trying to save us from eternal damnation. However, if we do not listen, believe, and shape up, He will give up on us, turn His back on us, and we are lost forever. God's love is perhaps more patient and more forgiving than those we have known on this earth, but it is basically the same. Therefore it also has a limit.
I reject the idea that God's love is limited like the loves we receive from the people on this earth. I believe, and the Bible says, that the love of God for us is not just greater than any earthly affection we have experienced, but it is also different.
The first hint I had that God's love was a quite different love was the words of Paul in I Corinthians 13:4 which say, "love is not jealous ..."
Now one of the main characteristics of romantic love is jealousy. A Scottish proverb underlines that when it says, "Love is never without jealousy." Yet Paul is telling us about a love that is not jealous. That is certainly not romantic love or eros. In fact, the word eros is not even used in the New Testament either to refer to the love God has for us or the love we should have for each other.
In the New Testament, the word agape is used to refer to love. Agape is what this book is about. In the remainder of this book, whenever the word "love" is used, it is agape which is meant unless the words "romantic love" are used, in which case eros is meant.
Agape is love even for that which is not desirable. It is love that has nothing to do with the characteristics of the person who is loved. It is love that is totally dependent on the nature of the one who feels and gives the love. God loves people, not because of what they do, or feel, or believe, or are, but because of what God Himself is and thus feels.
In I John 4:8 we read, "God is love." This agape is the very nature of God, and it causes Him to love us with a different, unlimited, unconditional love.
Victor Hugo once said, "The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved-loved for ourselves, or rather, in spite of ourselves." This is the very kind of love that God feels for us. It does not matter how we respond, or if we respond at all.
In I John 4:10 we read, "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins."
So it is the love of God on which our assurance stands and, as the verse also says, our salvation. God loves us by His very nature, and by the very nature of that love He sends His Son to assure us of our salvation. When we really understand what God's love is like, this agape, there is no need to fear that He will ever punish us, reject us or stop loving us.
The writer of I John understands this, for he writes in I John 4:18, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love."
Thus, if we really understand God's love, we have no fear of punishment or hell.
Paul gives further assurances in Romans 8:31-33 when he writes, "What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?" What greater sign could He give of His love than the giving of His Son? If that does not convince us that He loves us, what will?
And once we are convinced, Paul goes on to assure us that nothing can separate us from that love, saying in verses 38-39, "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Truly, God's love is without limit. His love extends to all of us freely, fully and forever.
Chapter Two
Is Salvation for All?
Obviously, it is God alone who decides who will be saved and how. In Romans 8:30 we read, "And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified."
In other words, God predetermined or predestined who would be saved. Our salvation is entirely God's choice and His doing. We may object to the fact that we can do nothing to change our fate. For me, it is a wonderful relief that my ultimate salvation is completely in God's hands. If my salvation depended on me in any way, I am sure I would mess it up.
We should all be happy if God has sealed our salvation. But what if He has chosen to condemn us? Then it is surely unfair that there is no way we can redeem ourselves. This problem does not arise if God chooses to save everyone, which I believe to be true.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from LOVE WITHOUT LIMIT by Walter E. Williams Copyright © 2004 by Walter E. Williams. Excerpted by permission.
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