The other week, I had this beautiful woman, new in Christ, ask me what should have been a simple question, “If you could only share one thing about the Lord, what would that one thing be?”
Now, if she had asked me this question six months ago, I would have known exactly what my response would have been…
That there is a big God in heaven that loves her and that His love does not waver, or change based on her good or bad deeds. His love has been toward her from the moment of her conception and has remained with her every day since.
God’s love was not less when she was living life for herself, and it is not more now that she is surrendering her life to Him. As a matter of fact, He loved her even though He knew the path that she would take and the sin she would commit, and He loved her without falter.
God’s love is so big that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment for her sin and make a way back to Him for eternity. In her repentance of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour, she accepted His unconditional love.
But at that moment, while I wanted her to know God’s love, I knew that God had been working on me and that I can’t simply tell of His love and not address the need for repentance. That while God is love, therefore He is a loving God, He is also just and there is a penalty for our sins.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ... And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:8, 16
You see, our culture has perverted the word love. They like to toss it around as if true love is blind to the truth. Culture teaches that love allows things to slide, and we should allow people to just live any old way and do anything that they believe will make them happy without consequence or penalty for wrong actions, even if those things will cause them or others pain and harm. While we are to love others regardless of their actions, there is also a penalty for all bad actions.
Real love, on the other hand, demonstrates itself in truth warning others that sin will cause you pain, hurt you, etc. True love says, “I love you enough to show you the truth.” Not our opinion of truth but the truth of God’s Word. We must warn people of the danger that comes with living a life of sin with no repentance.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. - Ezekiel 3:18
It is easy to tell someone that Jesus loves them, but it is a little more complicated to share that God is just and because He is just, He cannot allow our sins to go unpunished. If He did that would mean that Jesus’ death was for nothing. That the pain, the humiliation, and the excruciating crucifixion had no purpose because there was no payment needed.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: - 1 Peter 3:18
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by [that] man whom he hath ordained; [whereof] he hath given assurance unto all [men], in that he hath raised him from the dead. - Acts 17:30-31
While I still feel a calling to teach and share the marvelous love of God, that is unchanging, that is never greater or smaller, and that is always with us….. I will also love others enough to share that God is also just and cannot allow our sins to slide. I’ll share how God has made a way through Jesus Christ for us to turn from those sins and be forgiven through the price Jesus paid on calvary with His life. I will love people enough to tell them the truth that God is a just and loving Father.
So, while I may not have been able to tell her one specific thing that she needed to know, I was able to tell her two!
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
- John 3:16-18
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