The Pillars of the Church: An Overwhelming Love
If you profess to be a Christian, are you? Right now? The same person you were before coming to know Christ? If you aren’t sure how to answer that, let me ask this way: “Has the love of Christ softened your harshness, calmed your anxieties, and reshaped your character?” This is the exact impact Jesus’ love had on the Apostle John.
Enslaved to selfish passions, pride, and ambition, it was John’s realization of the overwhelming love God had for him in Christ that set him free to not only truly love God but to truly love others as well. That’s why he wrote, in 1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.” Richard Sibbes, a beloved Puritan Pastor of the 16th century, wrote, “There is more love in Christ than sin in us.” Overwhelmed by this overwhelming love, he who was once ambitious for earthly glory was later exiled to Patmos for the glory of his Lord. Once a fisherman on Galilee's shores, he became a fisher of men, bringing souls to his Lord. Once ready to call down fire on the Samaritans, God took this fiery, impulsive young man and transformed him into the Apostle of Love, a pillar in the early church, author of 5 New Testament books, and the only apostle to live into old age - a true witness unto death! It’s what God does with sinners. It’s what God wants to do in you, too!
Beloved, what impact has the overwhelming love of Jesus had on you? Are you, right now, the same person you were before coming to know Christ? If you are relying on anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ, who paid God’s penalty for your sins on the cross, you will never find freedom from sin or answers to life’s questions. Today, allow the overwhelming love of Jesus to overwhelm you, and like John, you will become a changed person too. It’s what God does with sinners. It’s what God wants to do in you, too!
This is Laine Wilder for Carry the Light Ministries, bringing you Insights From an Elder.
by Laine Wilder
Author of “Insights From an Elder” for
Carry the Light Ministries
