7/30/11
Greetings,
For the past two weeks we have been discussing 1 John and the shift in paradigm that his writings force upon us. While we are inclined to look at things from the natural first and then consider the spiritual, his writings look at the spiritual first and then consider the natural. We have also come to understand that in every case that he talks about the topic of love, he is speaking in reference to the love of God—agape. This is a love that can neither be generated nor counterfeited. It has its source in heaven and must enter into the earth through us.
In order to make the concept of God’s love a little easier to understand, we are going to employ some examples. These examples will help us to conceptualize how we are to interact with and embrace the love of God. We need to understand what we are after and sometimes it is not enough just to hear something.
Imagine a hamster. Consider its fluffy body, tiny feet and oversized belly. Admit it, despite the fact that it’s a rodent, it’s kind of cute. Of course, it lives in a cage. It takes its water from a bottle. It eats out of a dish. When it needs exercise, it runs in its wheel. The wheel spins and spins. The hamster never considers the implications of going nowhere or the fact that nothing gets produced. As long as it’s running and the wheel is spinning everything seems so right. As long as the wheel keeps spinning, who cares if the hamster actually gets nowhere?
Some of us are like that hamster. Trying to love others without the love of God makes us no more effective than the hamster. The purpose is not to spin your wheels “trying” to live up to the Bible. We must stop thinking that Christianity needs to be generated by works of the flesh. This is purposeless and backwards. For the past two weeks we have been discussing that agape must be received from the dimension where it originates. Any other comprehension of loving others with the love of God is by definition carnal. This must not be so! Consider what Paul had to say to the carnally minded Corinthians:
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:1)
We’re now going to look at an example that will help us lay down carnal thinking when it comes to the concept of agape. I am going to create a mental picture for how this works. Imagine a gardener. This gardener has a garden that needs to be watered. The garden represents the lives of the people in his sphere of influence. The water represents the love of God that needs to be poured out upon them.
This gardener understands the basic principle of things. It’s his job to water the garden. If he waters the garden, he’ll bear much fruit! Like it is written
“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20)
Unfortunately this gardener is not the brightest crayon in the box. Let me explain. He has a water hose attached to his house. This hose represents his connection to the heavenly places, or the dimension where God’s love is generated (Ephesians 2:6, Ephesians 3:17-19). This hose receives water from a reservoir that for all intents and purposes is unlimited. Therefore, instead of going the most logical route, he walks several miles to his nearest grocery store, pays $1.29 and buys a can of Coke®. What is his goal? If you can believe it, he has purposed to water the garden with the coke that his self-effort produced. Why would he do something so ridiculous?
The Coke® represents a counterfeit to God’s love. This is backwards thinking. It is impossible to water an entire garden with this substance and expect it to work. In the same way, it is impossible to love others according to the way God has purposed us to love them if we go about it with the wrong paradigm. The wrong paradigm is self-effort. It’s not our job to develop strategies for generating a counterfeit. It is our job to reveal it from its source. This can only be done by allowing this love to flow through us, which is why we must seek to be continually filled with the Spirit.
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18)
Many Christians are like the gardener. They then turn around and try to love others as best they can. When the Coke® doesn’t work, they feel like failures. They ask: why does the Bible demand such an impossible standard? How foolish. Here’s the new paradigm: Turn on the hose of God’s love and douse yourself with it until your clothes, hair and shoes are literally dripping. Then turn around and blast the people in your life with the same hose. The love isn’t being generated by your self-effort, so don’t try to live like it is. Just let it flow from its source, and suddenly you’ll find that the proverbial garden is literally drowning from overexposure. It is possible! You can release the love of God upon others! Don’t be like the hamster spinning its wheels. When we get a grasp of this, unity in the body of Christ will become very natural.
Discussion
1. Do you perceive life by looking first to the natural or first to the spiritual?
2. Considering the example of the hamster, can you remember a time in your life where you felt like this example applied to your situation?
3. Can you remember a time when you tried to love others out of a wrong paradigm?
4. How many dimensions does the love of God occupy?
5. Where does agape come from?
