For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. John 3:16-20
New English Translation
A quote that has stuck with me over the past few months goes something like this:
“Every day we get to choose whether we’ll love God back.”
Matt Heard
In the video this quote comes from, Matt is talking about how we don’t have to earn God’s love because He’s already freely given it to us. He was making it clear that we don’t do spiritual disciplines, be nice people, just because we’re trying to get God’s approval. Instead, he made the remark quoted above highlighting that every day, every choice we make, is a choice of whether we’re going to love God back. Nothing is devoid of this. Nothing is just a meaningless decision. Everything, big or small, comes back to this idea: am I loving Jesus back?
Now, what does this have to do with the scripture above? Well, everything, actually. See, what this scripture is telling us is that God loves us so much that He has offered us eternal life, which is life lived with Him starting here on earth and carried into eternity in heaven. But, a lot of times people stop there and completely ignore the verses that come after the over-quoted John 3:16. However, John 3:19-20 are talking about the very idea that Matt Heard was teaching on.
Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. John 3:19-20
New English Translation
Every day we choose whether to love God back. Do you see that in this scripture? It talks about how when we choose our “preferences” over living with God, we’re loving the darkness rather than God. Each time we say, “it’s no big deal, this really doesn’t make that big of difference in the long run”, we’re choosing darkness over Jesus.
Here’s an example of this: When we come to the ever common discussion concerning Santa Clause, many people treat it like it’s not going to be a big deal and we can do whatever catches our fancy. However, this discussion is much bigger than that.
Realize this: Santa attempts to replace or discredit Jesus. Yes, I said it, and I mean it.
Who do we encourage children to share their greatest desires with? Santa or Jesus?
Who do we focus Christmas around for 90% of the celebration excluding Sunday service? Santa or Jesus?
Who is the unseen omnipresent being who determines right and wrong? Santa or Jesus?
Now those are just the tip of the iceberg. On top of that, we have the very fact that we’re lying to children about Santa, which then we’ve planted the seed that their parents would lie to them to make them feel good… so are they lying about God, too?!
Do you see what I’m talking about? Everything is much bigger than we like to think it is. We can either choose to love Jesus or love the darkness. This is how I approach my decisions: What am I choosing here? Jesus or this thing? Is this what Jesus wants?
I’ve been told numerous times by people that they can’t believe that Jesus is so much the center of my life. But, I can’t believe how often I see that Jesus isn’t the center of Christian’s lives. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, I don’t always get what I want. Yes, I have to change every day to stay faithful to God. However, isn’t that a good thing? Anything worth having is worth working for. See, love is not a fuzzy feeling. Love is a verb (cue the DC Talk song).
Feeling tingly when someone says something can be just as much indigestion as anything else, so that can’t be our definition of love. Rather, the greatest act of love is found in scripture. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate act of love. Sacrificing Himself for the well being of another.
Love involves sacrifice. Often, it means sacrificing what we would prefer for what honors God. It can be sacrificing the easiest way of the world for the harder way with Jesus. In the end, in those moments, we are choosing whether we want to love God or love the world. See, when we don’t choose Jesus, we choose to sacrifice welcoming Jesus in our life to be in the world… no matter what, an act of love involves some form of sacrifice. Remember, you’re the one who gets to choose what is sacrificed.
So, as I leave you with these thoughts, I want you to seriously inventory your decisions in life. What was the driving force behind them? Was it getting what you wanted? Doing what was easy? Or was it loving Jesus back? Honesty now can save you from an eternity of heartache later.