Love

Love binds our deep truths together, and brings them into proper focus. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Love is the essence of his being and character; it is love that compels him to pursue a rebellious and sinful world, instead of simply condemning it.

God can and will be glorified in judgement. But he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He loves the world – a world that in its hostility, is set against him.

If we love like God loves, we’ll be urgent about the work of salvation – to save from hell, and to bring those that are being saved into the fellowship of his people, and into the life of love he calls us to.

Given the deep truths we’ve seen in recent blogs: the biblical vision for God to be glorified in Christ in and through the church, the reality of heaven and hell, the fact of the cross, the brevity of life, and God’s love for his world – we can’t just settle for ‘being faithful.’ We can’t ‘just be faithful’ without caring about whether people walk away. We can’t ‘just be faithful’ without being moved to care deeply, and to sacrifice, and to make changes, so that people around us may be saved and presented mature in Christ. An attitude like that is both deficient and ungodly, as in - not like God.

God doesn’t desire the death of anyone, and he paid the ultimate price so that people could be saved.