Is #loveislove enough?
(CREDIT: Glenn Lascuna via Flickr)
As the closing date for the marriage postal survey approaches, it’s worth reflecting on some of the slogans we’ve heard throughout the campaign.
One well-known ‘hashtag’ is #loveislove.
It’s a catchy phrase, but what does it really mean?
Maybe it’s saying that if a person feels love, then that love is enough to allow them to marry that person, even if they are of the opposite sex.
But in the end, when people say “love is love”, it doesn’t really say a lot about love.
That’s why it’s good that God tells us in the Bible what love really is.
We see this in 1 John chapter 4 sentence 9: “This is how God shows his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
But Jesus was sent for a specific reason, which we read in the next sentence: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
In other words, God’s love was shown by a costly sacrifice, by sending Jesus to us, to die for us.
He did that so that we might have our sins forgiven.
So if we ask Jesus for forgiveness and follow him as our loving ruler, then we can now fully enjoy the greatest love of all.
What’s more, we’ll also understand that the heart of love is sacrifice.
As we then know this sacrificial love of God deeper and deeper, and follow his loving rule more and more, then he will also empower us to supernaturally love like he first loved us.
Which means that #godsloveislove is probably a better hashtag!
Jodie McNeill
Coming up this weekend 21st – 22nd October 2017
This weekend we continue our series on 2 Samuel. In the next talk, Simon Chaplin will be speaking from 2 Samuel chapter 13 verses 1 to 39 on the topic ‘Sin and vengeance in the Kingdom’.
At both our services, we will have a special update about Anglicare which is our Mission of the Month.
During our 5pm Saturday service, we’ll have our weekly question and answer time, and Jodie will be answering these questions:
- Which Pharaoh forgot about Joseph and his place in Egypt’s history?
- Since Uriah was a Hittite, wasn’t he an enemy of Israel?
- Who are the ‘masters’ that are referred to in 2 Samuel 12:8?
- Did the war against the Ammonites continue throughout the events of 2 Samuel 12?
- Why was David’s sin of having multiple wives and concubines not dealt with in the same way as his sin with Bathsheba?
- Has Christ taken all the punishment for sin or just the cost of death for the sin?
Our 8am Sunday service will be a Holy Communion Second Order AAPB service.
If you’re wanting to check out our church we’d really love you to visit us on Saturday at 5pm for a contemporary service with kids’ program and dinner afterwards, or come along on Sunday at 8am for a Prayer Book service.
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