www.jolietchurch.org
October 3, 2004
Editor: John Meyer

Abounding Love
From: Christianity Magazine, May 1999
By Paul Earnhart

        That the love found among Christians should at times overflow the banks and reach to extraordinary limits should in no way surprise us. The Master we serve, in the midst of His final agony and humiliation, when hardly able to breathe, prayed the mercy of God upon those who were murdering Him and glutting their eyes upon His misery (Luke 23:34). Such love goes beyond all bounds. It is remarkable enough for one to pray for his enemies upon reflection, but quite another to do it while in the white-hot center of their torture and unrelenting taunts.
        After that, Stephen crying for God to spare those who were beating the life from his innocent body, as heroic as it was, is made less astonishing (Acts 7:60). He was simply following in the footsteps of One who "when He suffered did not threaten" (1Peter 2:23).
        Further, it is no surprise when Paul, writing to some Christians whose love was already a widely known and celebrated fact (1Thessalonians 1:3-8), urged them to grow still further: "And may the Lord make you to increase and abound in love to one another and to all" (3:12).
        What the Lord Jesus had taught and lived had gone home in these men. His disciples were called beyond the soft and ordinary loves that are mere responses to the love and lovability of others. They were summoned to the painfully difficult task of willing the good of those who had unjustly injured them, perhaps profoundly, and not only were not lovable, they were despicable (Matthew 5:43-48). We ought not, therefore, be startled and amazed by contemporary expressions of this same powerful kind of love, which should not be uncommon among Christians. And yet we are. Is it possible that we have contented ourselves with the thought that the soft loves of ordinary life are really all that Jesus demands? I thought of this when I received the following email from Dennis Allen in Sao Paulo, Brazil which he titled "A Love Story":
        Those of you who have visited here in the past 22 months will remember Jose' Antonio Junqueira and his wife, Roseli. They were converted in 1997. They continue to do very well after abandoning a life that had been dedicated to sin. They are among the finest and fastest growing young Christians I have ever worked with. Jose' Antonio is constantly meeting and teaching people, and is always eager to share with me the news of new contacts and the progress of studies he is teaching. It has been a pleasure to watch them grow in every way.
        But tonight was special. I passed by his house and waved and he rushed outside to chat. He told me of conversations and possible studies with three or four people, and then focused in on one person. He had offered a study to a man named Antonio Carlos, and is very optimistic that he will accept the study. He would very much like to see this man serve the Lord. He then added a comment that made a deep impression on me. He said: "He is the man who murdered my sister's husband a few years ago."
        I am convinced that there is only one place on earth that a man could speak with such enthusiasm about the prospect of saving someone who had murdered his brother-in-law --- in the body of the One who died for His own murderers. Please pray for Antonio Carlos ... and thank God for the power of His love to transform men such as Jose' Antonio.
        This remarkable example reminded me of another contemporary story of "abundant love." The mother of a young girl was considering marriage to a man who did not want her daughter to live with them. The mother agreed and the daughter was given to others to raise. The daughter grew up to be a faithful Christian, married and had a family of her own. Her mother died and left her stepfather all alone with no one to care for him in his advanced years. The daughter, whom he had by utter selfishness driven out from her mother, did something very improbable. She invited him to come and live with her, an invitation he accepted. It would have been a great story if it had ended there. What makes it even greater is that the selfless love of this godly woman so graciously adorned the gospel that her stepfather came to be a faithful Christian.
        Loving others in a Christ-like way is not ordinary, and it is not meant for the fainthearted. But is made possible by the grace of God for all His children. And does it really work to change the lives of others, this forever returning good for evil, blessing for reviling? You ought to know if you are a follower of Jesus. It was in just this way that He made you, His enemy, a friend and brother (Romans 5:8-10; Colossians 1:21-22).