If we were to embody the over-the-top “praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” language of these passages we would be
different people. By that I mean we would be more generous, more forgiving,
more loving, more Christ-like to ourselves and as a result to others. Truth is
all of our less than loving behavior towards others comes from a less than
loving acceptance of ourselves. Our inability to love who we are comes from the
belief that we are less than worthy of being loved or on the flip side a belief
that we are more than worthy of being loved, which in a strange way is really
the same thing. I know I’m oversimplifying things but I don’t think I’m
breaking new ground in the thought that those who know and believe and accept
that they are loved “lavishly” (1:8) period-end-of-sentence love in the same
way. But then we know too much about ourselves, even if we are well schooled in
the discipline of denial, to believe a perfect Being could tolerate “sinners”
such as ourselves. But what if we were to accept that the God who exists beyond
time and space is not that different from the very best parent among us who is
inextricably connected to the child of their desire and could no more condemn
them to hell on earth or beyond than we could and grieves every moment of
separation? And more than that, that God, who in good pleasure loves lavishly,
depends on the effects of such radical acceptance to transform self-centered
individuals into those who live for the praise of God’s glory. Of course that’s
the kind of love that got Christ crucified but then maybe lavish love takes
crucifixion as a given.
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