maybe you’ve received an email like this in the past few months? it’s a thomas kinkade painting and the email goes a little something like this…
This is a simple test: IF YOU LOVE JESUS, SEND THIS TO AT LEAST 10 PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU!
this is about as effective in sharing the love of Christ as this…
the unbelievable thing is that people i love dearly and consider to be “Christian” are actually sending these to me. where has this forced idea of conditional love surfaced from? certainly not Christ. i’m fairly certain that when Paul said…
7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Romans 5:7-9
he was insinuating that the love God demonstrated by sacrificing His son was unconditional.
insert old school “but that was the condition under which we are saved so it IS conditional!” very good, don’t forget your american flag pin on your way to the convention next week.
the “love” that Paul is referencing is the Greek word “agape.” in the Greek language there were different words for different kinds of love. if you are reading this, then you probably already have a general overview of the other types of love, but here they are for refreshment.
The Love Motivation
16He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”
same deal.
17He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You ” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
Peter is humbled in this moment because this is the third time he has to say it; but is so completely beautiful because he denied Christ three times and now he has professed his ‘friendship’ love for Him three times. the scriptures don’t give us a huge insight into how this interaction affected Peter in his heart specifically but this seems to me a sort of repentance and forgiveness type conversation. check out what happens next…
18“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”
Jesus is saying that one day Peter will ‘agape’ Him by dying for Him. that kind of love, ‘agape,’ is unconditional because it asks nothing of us, it just is.
so the next time you receive an email like that, reply with ‘i agape you’ and hopefully that will spark some wonderful conversations about how much God ‘agape’d’ us (yes i did just conjugate a greek word with an english conjugative.
One Response to “if you love Jesus you will forward this to ten people”