God Loves Anyway

"For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known."
1 Corinthians 13:12

Not having all the information really irks some people. Personally, I appreciate a little mystery being left in things. For some people, the remains of dinosaurs mean that the Bible can’t be true. Me, I just wonder where they fit in. Were they on the ark with Noah? Or did they die off before Noah’s time? Or were their bones just part of an earth that was mature when God created it? How old is this earth, anyway? I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows. And I’m okay with that.

The human body, the earth, the planets, the galaxies, the existence of a spiritual realm… there’s a lot of mystery in this world. I think that’s a good thing. I mean, try to imagine: What if you knew everything? Or worse yet, what if everyone knew everything. Not just the facts of the universe, but every thing. It would be a disaster. A simple example: what if the last waiter or waitress that served you a meal knew your every thought about him or her instantaneously? Worse yet, what if the people eating with you knew those thoughts too? You might end up with some foreign material in your burger or your spouse’s meal smeared about your face.

While some may see it as a curse, our lack of complete knowledge is a provision from God. In some ways, it is evidence of his love for us. You see, God understands the limitations of our humanity. He knows that we couldn’t handle this kind of information. Every relationship would be destroyed before it ever started. That’s because our love, thoughts, intentions, feelings and actions are all corrupted through and through. Personally, I don’t think I’m capable of even one completely selfless act. I said completely selfless. That means no desire for recognition or reciprocation. No desire for a specific outcome. No desire for personal satisfaction of any kind. No personal benefit whatsoever. Nothing. It seems impossible to me.

There is only one relationship that is not broken by this kind of complete knowing. There is only one love that endures in the face of it. And that is the relationship with and the love of our Heavenly Father. God knows your every thought about him and about others, and he loves anyway. Because God’s love is greater. Because God’s love is purer. In contrast to ours, God’s love is capable of being completely selfless. He offers it to those he knows will only spurn it, but he keeps on offering anyway.

The Apostle Paul points to one act that epitomizes the purity and excellence of God’s love. He writes, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Thousands of years before you were born, God knew and loved you. Thousands of years before you turned your back on God in rebellion, God knew and loved you anyway. Here, in the present, God continues to love. When you doubt that he knows best, he continues to love. When part of you wonders whether God even exists or cares, he continues to love. When you choose to indulge the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit, his love continues unabated.

Our love isn’t this pure, is it? Offering complete and pure love to someone who is only capable of offering incomplete and corrupt love. Think of a broken relationship in your past. Knowing what you know now, would you do it all over again? Would you put your heart on the line knowing the heartbreak that awaits? Would you marry the spouse who tore your heart from your chest? Would you work for the boss who threw you under the bus? Would you invest your savings with the friend who turned out to be a thief?

God put his heart on the line when he put the sins of this world on his Son. All of those impure thoughts, feelings, intentions and actions – Jesus willingly took the punishment for those. Not just mine, though they are many. Not just yours. But the sins of the world.

Though a vast number will only ever reject it, God’s love still seeks out. Despite knowing that even those who love him most will continue to fall short (only God knows how many times), his love continues. Because God’s love never fails. Though it be rejected, it is not diffused. Though it be disparaged, it is not diminished. Thought it may never be fully comprehended, it is not decreased. This is the love offered to you by your heavenly Father.

Because you are loved more than you will ever know.

Some of us need to begin to walk in the knowledge of this love. Others need to turn to God and receive it for the first time. Your life is not your own. You have been bought with a price, and that price is a love that cost your Father dearly. But it was a price he was willing to pay. For you.

“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father…that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth (of this love), and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
-- the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:14-18

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
- Jesus in John 15:13