"God designed love to be based on our free will. He didn’t want to be loved out of fear, or out of compliance. He wanted to be loved out of gratitude. But love has a price tag. If love is free, then a lover is free to be unloving. Otherwise love is forced. Because we are free to be unloving, many of us have been run over by the steamroller of the selfishness of others" - Henry Cloud (Safe People)
This week I experienced the “steamrolling” of love that Cloud so poetically stated in ‘Safe People’. The love that God offers and sent to us through His son creates a utopia of a world in the minds of Christians. In this world that Christians create, hurt from love of a “sister” or “brother” in Christ doesn’t exist, until it happens. As humans we all desire things from others, yet we do not always return what we ourselves have desired. So in the event that our love we “freely” give is discarded and not returned what do we do?
Ephesians 5: 1-2, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”.
We are called to be imitators of God and as His loved children we are asked to live a life of love. Notice how the scripture in Ephesians doesn’t acknowledge an exception to the rule of love, it simply says love, it goes even a step further and says let your life be a fragrant offering, which means a sweet like smell, of love. Through life there will be people that caste different aromas than the fragrant offering written about in Ephesians 5. Some of these people may be strangers, co-workers, family members, spouses, friends, it doesn’t really matter who they are, because the love that they lack brings out a hurtful aroma.
Philippians 1: 9, ” And that this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight”
Over time walking with Christ our knowledge and depth of love will mature, deepen, and ultimately grow. This growth comes from heartache, pain, and trials but non the less it will encourage growth. The only requirement from God, is that through the obstacles we face and the pain that we experience love is the main aroma that fills the atmosphere around us. My prayer this week is that when the flesh rises up and refuses to eject a fragrant offering to the one causing us pain, the Spirit will go before us like a vapor leading us only to love.
Freely given without a price, as vast as the ocean, as wide as the mountains are across, as deep as a canyon, is the all consuming love that God has for His precious children. He does not love based on good or bad behavior, His love is steady and remains constant. His love is perfect, unbreakable, unchangeable, and blameless. Whether we choose to receive or identify with His love, the aroma of it remains.
