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Over the past two weeks we've discussed two principles that might help us live out Jesus desire that we would love our neighbour as ourselves.

  • Live with an awareness of everyone's humanity.
  • Live with an awareness of everyone's uniqueness.

Today I'd like to talk briefly about a third principle.

Principle #3:  Live with an awareness of how much YOU are loved.

The prophet Jeremiah described God's love as "everlasting love." It isn't "until you screw up" love. It isn't "until I get bored of you" love. It isn't even "as long as you love me too" love. It is everlasting love. St. Paul prayed this for all the church (Ephesians 3):

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul knew that until people became overwhelmed with the magnitude of God's love for them, they would be hindered in their ability to follow Jesus and love well. Paul himself was a "chief of sinners", but had received Jesus grace and love. In fact he tells us that it was Christ's love that compelled him in his ministry of love and mission.

I don't know what you've come through. I don't know what you may have done. The gospel of Jesus declares that there is nothing that can stop Jesus from loving you. You are loved. The God of the universe sees you . . . all of you . . . and loves you.

In one of the EHS sessions were invited to do an exercise. I'd like you do take a minute where you are right now to do a part of it:

I invite you to close your eyes for a few moments. As you do, step out of all your roles in life - father, mother, leader, employee, boss, student, friend, brother, sister, teacher. Right now, you are only a child of God. Imagine God delighting in you as a parent delights in their child. His eyes sparkle as he gazes upon your face. He is smiling and loving all over you. What are the words you would love to hear God say to you? Allow him to speak those words over you.

Take one minute in silence and with some deep breaths and do this exercise.

Some may object, "But that's not God's voice . . . it's just your imagination!" But imagining God as a delighting father is not just imagination. It is how he is revealed in the Bible. (1 John 3:1) Too often it is our imagination that avoids us from seeing this reality about God and listening for his affirming whisper. We imagine a God waiting to condemn us. We imagine a distant and ambivalent God. We imagine a God consumed with rules and laws. Since we imagine anyway, let us imagine in a way that is consistent with how God has revealed himself through Jesus . . . as a loving father delighting in us - delighting in you.

From that place of being loved we can be free from fear of others reactions or judgement. From that place of being loved we find rest and security that allows us (in John 4:7-12) to love freely and completely. From that place of being loved we begin to truly be able to love our neighbour as ourselves.