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Early Christians
I am very curious about what the early Christians were like. What did they feel? What really opened their eyes to see their life in a radically new way? What did they discover that they didn’t know before? What gave them the strength to go on in spite of all those persecutions?
For example, what changed St. Paul and gave him this conviction? He was fine as he was as a faithful Jew. He had all the privileges he could enjoy in his life. He had enough money. He had enough clout. He was well accepted and respected. He was a good man, as good as any human beings could be before God. He even boldly said that he was blameless as to goodness under the law. What changed him? What made him so excited about his new life and Jesus that he would give his life for?
I was thinking about it. I think it is LOVE. He discovered love. God he knew, before Jesus Christ, was God of law. He knew God who gave commandments. But Jesus taught him that the greatest commandment of all was love. He knew God of fear. But through Jesus Christ, he discovered the God of love.
St Paul
What we read today is Paul’s concluding prayer for the church in Thessalonica. The first Thessalonians is the earliest letter of St. Paul and it is the earliest document of all New Testament books. So if you order the New Testament by the order of what was written first, it would have been before Matthew. So, we can read Paul’s earliest thought.
There he said this.
And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. (1 Thessalonians 3:12)
Love was what St. Paul found and everything else became secondary. He heard Jesus’ message correctly. Because Jesus said loving God and loving your neighbour is the greatest commandment.
That was exactly what he said.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
He said all these important things like understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge, prophetic powers, even faith that removes mountains, the sacrifice of all your possessions, even of your life, they are nothing if there is no love. He said love is the greatest thing. That was what he discovered. Love made all the difference for Paul. God’s love was what made salvation possible. God’s love defeated the power of darkness and the power of death. God’s love was what made everything alive and connected us to God in inseparable unity.
He said,
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)
He said, “I am convinced…” It came to him as conviction. It was what he discovered. This discovery came to him so powerfully that it became the core of what he believed. God’s love made us inseparable from God.
Discovery of God’s love is the greatest discovery. It is hard to see love because we experience so many things that are not love. They blind our eyes from seeing love. Rejection, alienation, hatred, failures, self-condemnation, judgement, and abuses. These things blind our eyes and so we cannot see love. We live in darkness. We live condemned. We live in loneliness.
Love in its Purest form
We need to DISCOVER LOVE. When we discover love in its purest form, that is God. That’s why John said,
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, FOR GOD IS LOVE. (1 John 4:7, 8)
Jesus’ death on the cross describes the unfathomable love of God for us. There is no greater love than that, Jesus said.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:12, 13)
Once we discover this love, we get enormous energy and strength. It is the strength that overcomes our fear. That was what propelled the early Christians. That was what propelled St. Paul.
Why do we live powerlessly? Why do we have no passion and no energy? Because we live in fear. We don’t live in love but in fear. The word that is opposite of love is not hatred. It is fear.
That’s why John said,
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. (1 John 4:18)
Advent
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means <coming> in Latin. We are waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus. Jesus came to love us. Jesus brought love to us.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)
What we are waiting for is love. What we are celebrating is love. What makes this church Christian church is love. What makes us Christians is love.
We are all sinners. We have lots of faults. St. Paul misunderstood about himself. He thought he was good. But he was not. That was what he discovered. Only when he saw his faults, he was able to discover God’s love that covered his sins. St. Peter experienced the same thing. He thought he was a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. He said he would follow him to death. But when he denied Jesus three times, he realized he was not only weak but he was wicked.
So he said,
Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
Yes, love covers a multitude of sins. Pride will not get rid of sins. It may help you hide it but will not help you get rid of it. Only when we discover God’s love, our sins will be blotted out. We need to let down our pride and, in that place, we should put love. When we let down our pride and fill that place with love, we will experience our burdens being lifted up. We will experience true holiness.
That was what St. Paul said right after asking the Lord to make them increase and abound in love.
And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:13)
Love makes us blameless. During this Christmas season, let us discover love. Let us focus on love. Let us experience how much God loves us. And let us discover love by practicing love to the people around us. That love will make us holy.
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