Love That Transforms by Nate Hayes

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

However, the way of Jesus is not comfortable, safe or about living a lifestyle that centres around our wants and needs. The DNA of Christianity, and by that the heart of Jesus are the antithesis of these things. We see this in Jesus’ response to the teacher of the law who confidently said, ‘“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”’ (Matthew 8:19-21NIVUK). Lent is a time for us as followers of Jesus to inhabit his 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, going without food, being tested by God and tempted by Satan. That doesn’t sound very comfortable to me…

God is love (1 John 4:8) and this love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). The result of this should be that we see the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control’ (Galatians 5:22-23). However, I know in my own life that I can struggle to see this fruit.

Our vision as a church is to see the Gold Coast transformed by the love of Jesus. If we as a church are to play even a small part in seeing this played out in our city, it requires us to live a radically counter-cultural life. And yes… seeing the Gold Coast transformed by the love of Jesus requires us! Jesus is the one who does the transformative work in people's hearts, however as the body of Christ, we are his hands and feet in the world. As someone once remarked, the only Bible that many people will ever read is your life.

The Greek word translated as ‘love’ in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape. This is the highest form of love. It is sacrificial, selfless and unconditional. St. John Chrysostom wrote ‘love (agape) is the enclosure of the commandments... it is the crown of the virtues. It is not merely a feeling of the mind, but a persistent and energetic reaching out of the soul for the benefit of the other.’ St Paul writes that if we don’t have this kind of love, despite moving mountains in prayer, that we are nothing… (1 Corinthians 13:2).

If we are to offer this kind of self-sacrificial love to our city we must first allow this agape love of the Father to take hold of our hearts. I find my heart growing callous each day if I don’t spend time with God in prayers and worship and in his Word. Speaking of his congregation, Scottish minister Robert Murray M’Cheyne said, ‘My people’s greatest need is my own personal holiness.’ Whilst I don’t disagree with him, might I suggest that our city’s greatest need is for our hearts to be softened, broken and crushed by the depths of the Father’s agape love for us. 

To create room for God in our hearts requires us to declutter our lives of things that pull us away from God, our habits, how we spend our time, our money, and what content we allow ourselves to consume. We create room by addressing the sin in our lives and waking up our sleepy hearts. John Mark Comer writes, ‘The greatest enemy of the spiritual life is not some dark, overt evil; it is the subtle “drifting” into a life where God is a peripheral interest rather than the centre of our existence.’ Lent is a time of moving God from the periphery of our lives to the very core of our being. In doing so, we are putting Jesus, the personification of love in the centre of our lives.

If we are to see our city transformed by Jesus’ love we must allow ourselves to become a people possessed by love. It is there and only there that we will be able to offer God’s transforming love to others. The fruit of the Spirit will only grow in our lives if we remain attached to the True Vine (John 15). We cannot give what we do not have. Let us allow God the Father to take hold of our hearts and transform them so that our city may see and believe that true love can only be found in Jesus.

"Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love what Thou dost love,

And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Until my heart is pure,

Until with Thee I will one will,

To do and to endure."