The Prison of God’s Love

For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2Corinthians 5: 13 – 15)

I want us to look at God’s love as a prison. But we first must qualify the kind of love we are talking about. Not all love that we think of will result in that imprisonment.

But there is another thing we need to talk about that prison; it is dynamite. It is powerful beyond anything the world has ever seen.

That is why Paul says that the love of God constrains him. We imprison those who are unmanageable outside it. We are therefore talking about power and the need for its limitation. And that is God’s love.

That God is love is irrefutable. In fact that is the only strand atheists and other enemies of the cross grasp at. We must be able to disqualify God’s love to be able to dismantle His being.

Before we need to be imprisoned by God’s love, we must of necessity grow in that love to the extent that the love can produce the kind of power that will require it being constrained. You see, you do not dam a trickle of water or a stream. We do not even dam a seasonal river, however huge it is at its biggest. We only dam a river that big enough at its lowest because then we are sure of a consistent flow for whichever purpose, be it irrigation or electricity.

The love we are talking about is therefore the kind of love that has grown to the point that it is dependable and consistent. It has also transformed the person bearing it and can never be drained.

Let us look at the levels leading to that love.

At the first level is the reception of God’s love. At this point we are able to see God for the love He has released to mankind. We are able to acknowledge John 3:16, and accept it. We therefore choose to receive that love.

You have heard of drunks who in their drunken stupor are captured by the realization of that truth that they will weep and confess their sins as they receive that love. And they change completely though at that time there was no evangelist anywhere near. Others encounter that love as they are planning, even executing an evil device. Yet others are ministers who may have ministered for years without coming to that realization. And the results are the same.

Receiving God’s love leads to salvation. That is the entry point to eternal life.

Sadly, many people will stop at that level. God loves me and that is all that matters. Many forget that there are responsibilities after receiving that love. Many pastors nowadays do not preach beyond this level. That is why there is little mention of growth and victory over sin as at this level all that matters is acceptance. We are accepted whatever we do however we live. God’s love covers it.

I will compare it to the prodigal son. At his lowest, he was content just to be received to eat from the provision meant for the servants. But you also realize that it was at the same point that he asked for his inheritance. He knew that his father loved him and that was all that mattered to him.

God receives us as we are. Just as I am is a favorite hymn. But the doctrine gets twisted beyond here because it assumes that God does not care what we do after receiving that love. We can swim in sin for all we care and God won’t mind because He loves us. We forget that when Jesus received people He always told them to go and sin no more.

But there is another level, a growth level.

At this level we respond to Gods love by loving Him in return. But it is our love. We seek to love Him our way.

It is an effort kind of love. We will fight for Him. We will defend Him in arguments. We are even ready to die for Him.

We see that with the disciples. We see it with the men of God of old.

At this point anything that we feel is opposed to God becomes our enemy. I suspect it is at this level the crusades happened. We will fight for God with all we have because of our love for Him.

Remember in Psalm 139 David saying he hated some people with a perfect hatred and counted them his enemies? That is the epitome of this kind of love.

Again that is where other believers stop.

Their giving, their ministry, in fact their whole lives revolve around what they can do for God because they love Him.

Of course at this point there is a revulsion against sin since we know God hates sin. We are obedient because we love God.

But a lot of that is our effort. We are the ones doing it. And of course we enjoy it and are pleased with all that effort. And it bears fruit.

But it sometimes leads to frustration especially because God does not operate in a straight line. We think we should access more from God because we love God more. We may therefore get frustrated when someone comes later and seems to get better rewards for their little labor than we get for our gigantic one.

The obedient son represents this kind of love.

He had done everything right and protected his father well. It therefore did not make sense that the father could pour his best on the brother who had wasted his wealth. He felt that his father was rewarding wastefulness.

We see the same when we see the Zebedee brothers wanting to call fire from heaven upon Samaritans for rejecting their Master. It was the same when Peter cut someone’s ear for daring to arrest Christ.

Of course you remember when some disciples sought to stop someone casting demons in Christ’s name because he was not one of them.

At this level performance is king.

But it can lead someone to overshoot the target completely.

Remember these ministers who are sent to hell yet they were super effective in their ministering (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)? I suspect they stopped their growth at this point. They believed that doing things out of our love for God was the only requirement in God’s eyes. They did not see the need to grow beyond performance. But whichever way they lost it.

But God wants to take us deeper into His love. He actually wants to pour His love into our lives. By this He wants to start living His life through us. He recreates us to be like Him.

That is what we see the father reasoning with His obedient son.

Everything I have is yours. You do not need rewards because it all belongs to you. You just need to own more than things. You need to own my heart. And I am willing for you to do it. Look at your brother through my eyes.

It was the same thing God dealt with Jonah concerning the losers that were Assyrians. You see that even prophets have issues with a performance type obedience and love!

God pours His love in our hearts, and this changes everything!

His love in us reproduces it in our interactions with the world. That love makes us like Him in all our ways.

As an example, God sends His rain even on those who hate Him, even those who deny His existence. He reaches out even to those who will have nothing to do with Him and His revelation or standards. Romans 5:18 is a clear demonstration of that love.

How is that possible? And where in the scriptures do we see that?

Stephen was stoned to death. Did he feel pain? Of course He did. Did he curse those stoning him? He blessed them and prayed for their forgiveness even amidst all that pain.

I believe it was that love in action that drew young Saul of Tarsus to reconsider his Judaistic and Pharisaical heritage. How does one love those who hated him enough to stone him to death? That must have been God’s love flowing from him.

That explains the reason through the ages persecution, instead of making bitter believers makes excellent witnesses. This is because they are pouring all that love to their killers. And that love is irresistible whatever weapon the enemy uses.

Next time we will look at the dynamics of how we access that love.

As an aside allow me to ask this question. As we have interacted with the enemy, and especially witchcraft, we hear a lot of ‘return to sender’ as concerns attempts to bring us down, whether through witchcraft, temptations, persecution, etc. Many spiritual superstars are experts at sending misfortunes ‘back to sender’ to the point that everybody with issues is advised to go for the ‘deliverance’ or whatever.

Is that consistent with God’s love as we have been discussing? Are there verses teaching us to do such?

Let me close with these verses for our meditation.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as Your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5: 38 – 48)

How possibly can we do this without an overflow of God’s kind of love?