God's Love Is Perfect
by
Rev. Suzanne L. Taylor
What truth I want to share with you today is the truth that God’s Love Is Perfect.
For something to be perfect, it must be balanced. Each of its components must have equal power and value. As Gloria Copeland says, “Nothing missing, nothing broken.“
What many people forget about God’s love is that it is balanced. Many teach that God is love, and that He wants His people to "prosper and be in good health as your soul prospers" (III John 2). That’s true. They are not making these things up. What they fail to tell you, however, is how God works in you to develop your maturity to a point where you can receive His pure love and blessings. There’s no such thing as, oops, you’re saved, now you‘re perfect, go forth and prosper! Salvation and maturity are processes that everyone must go through. Philippians 2:12,13 says to, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” God has supplied for us the way of salvation (the Christ, the anointed One of God), now we must walk with Him and grow in Him because that‘s what brings maturity.
What is to "work out your salvation?" It is to walk in the two greatest commandments we find in Matthew 22:36-40. "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
How does God help us do this? By demonstrating His perfecly balanced love for us that is contained in Scripture. Look at what II Timothy 3:16,17 shows us about how this is done. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” These verses are a wonderful description of what love is. God wants us to be complete in all things just as He is complete.
Isn’t that great? God doesn’t want gushy people full of only love, nor judgmental people full of only criticism doing His work. Nor does God want people who are highly spiritual, but no earthly good working for Him. God wants us to be a balance of all things. He is balanced in His love for us, and wants us to be balanced in our love for Him and for the people of His earth.
People who practice the religion that teaches them to contemplate their belly buttons while humming a mantra until they reach nirvana are no earthly good to God. Even if these people knew the true message of God that He wanted His people to hear, they wouldn’t be able to deliver it. They would first have to have to remove their focus from self and place it on people. But these people practice a religion steeped in pride of self, pure and simple.
We followers of Jesus the Christ are to be a balance of all things. We are to meditate on the Word of God and hide it in our hearts. The difference is, unlike those others, we are to share the knowledge we have accumulated during those quiet times. We hide the truths in our hearts only until the time comes when we can share it with others for their edification. And it's not the sole responsibility of ordained ministers and the like to share the Good News, it's for each one of us to share it boldly.
Now let’s see how we can know God’s love is perfect and balanced. Look again at II Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness..." The doctrine mentioned is the revelation of God in all His personalities, Father, Son, and Spirit. It is the historic record of the creation of man: It is the fall of man in the garden: It is the redemptive power of Jesus to save, and it is the historic record from which pastors must cull evidence to prove the reality of Christ as Jesus, the Messiah. In this doctrine, we find the truth of how we once lived in sin, and how we can be saved (born again, recreated). This document was prepared for us by God for the fulfillment of man. In other words the doctrine of Christianity is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for our salvation.
Since we know that God is love, we can believe that the doctrine of God, written in His Word to us is an extension of that love. Everything you find written within the pages of your Bible is there to teach you about love and how to manifest it in your own life. It contains all the information you need to live a godly life. Adam and Eve had perfect love from God, to God, and to each other. Then sin entered into the world by the weakness of their flesh, and man no longer knew perfect love. Now love was tarnished by fear and embarrassment. Genesis 3:8-10: "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
After doctrine, we see reproof. God tells us in His record how we should live. It then becomes the Holy Spirit’s job to reprove us when we don’t follow God’s guidelines (John 16:5-11). To reprove someone is to criticize him gently. When we go astray from the narrow, winding path into sin, we can feel the conviction of God’s Spirit nudging our spirit. This awakens our conscience to the sin so that we can repent (turn from the sin), and come back better.
Another way the Spirit of God reproves man is by His written Word. Often as we read the Word, the Spirit directs us to the Scripture verses which will speak to our situation. When we read what sin is, our minds can realize how we have allowed sin to infest our lives.
Watch this now; because of God’s perfect love, no situation can arise in our lives that has not already been addressed by God, and recorded in His Word. Any sin we might become involved in has already been dealt with in others by God. There are no surprises to God when we sin. To be sure we knew this, God had Paul write in I Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken us except what is common to man.” And that means that, as Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Are you in sin? Do you lie, cheat on your taxes, or on your spouse? Are you a back biter full of gossip? Do you speak out of the sin in your heart and bring division to families or the church? There have been others who have walked in that very sin. God knew how to pull them up out of it, and He knows how to pull you out. You need only turn the sin over to God and allow your will to agree with His will for your lives. Then God can begin to effect the changes that will bring you into the freedom you long for.
Next, after reproof, is correction. In His perfect love for us, God will correct us. He will not allow His children to continue in their sin without consequence. To correct is to remove the error from someone or something. When I attended grammar school (where they actually taught grammar!) the teachers corrected our errors with bright red pencil marks. God has many ways to correct us, and He will use any and all of them to deliver us from our sinful ways.
Again let’s use Adam and Eve as our example. God threw them out of the Garden of Eden lest they use their new-found knowledge of good and evil to eat from the Tree of Life. God cannot look on sin, and if Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life, they would have lived eternally in sin. Satan would have been the victor, and there would have been no way for a Savior to come to our rescue. It must have been very difficult for God to evict His beloved children from Paradise, but it had to be done for their sakes, and ours. God is omniscient, and He sees the “big picture.” When He does anything, it has to be right for every person involved, even for generations to come.
Correction is one step above reproof. If we haven’t listened to the gentle word of the Spirit and left the sin, God must become a little more insistent. Would God allow bad things to happen in our lives? Sure He would! He wouldn’t like it, but He is willing to do whatever is necessary to get out attention. If your child were to try putting his hand on the hot stove, you would stop him, and tell him not to touch or he’ll be hurt. If your child is determined, he will eventually touch the stove to find out the truth for himself., and he will reap the consequences of his rebellion. You pulled him away and tried to warn him of what would happen if he touched the hot stove, but he had to find out the hard way. We do the very same thing with God. He reproves us for touching sin, yet we persist in touching it all the more. The result of our disobedience is often painful, but not always physical.
Why do you suppose God takes time to reprove and correct us? It’s because of His perfect love for us. God wants us to walk daily in the excellencies of our salvation. When we walk in sin, we become sick in heart and spirit. We become depressed, weak in body, unable to focus. (One of the sins that causes the greatest harm to us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually is unforgiveness.) Sin makes us ineffective as Christians. As Christians we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16). When we live in sin, we lose our salty savor and we cannot be the light Jesus left to light this world. Our works are dead things.
Remember what Luke 16:13 tells us. “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” We need to choose whose we are. If we belong to God, we must walk according to His Word. But if we stray, we must accept God’s chastisement. If we belong to Jesus, we are to walk in love and mercy. If we choose the world to belong to, we must discontinue our claims to purity and righteousness in Christ. We can’t have it both ways.
Now we know that God’s Word is here to teach us about His perfectly balanced love for us. In His Word, God teaches us doctrine (the system of teaching related to our faith), reproof (a gentle nudging in the right direction), and correction (the punishments and chastisements by which God draws us back to Himself). God doesn’t find any pleasure in being harsh with us, but it’s sometimes necessary, and as a good parent, He will do it. When we have been reproved, corrected, and returned to God’s love, He blesses us abundantly. Now that’s balance.
