1Jn_4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Question is "love" works?
may i intrude?
how could love be works when it is a gift?
the Law tells us we must love God, but has no power to inspire love in us for God.
i was thinking about this story today. Luke 19:1-10
He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.
Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.
When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
i notice in this story that Jesus calls Zaccheus publicly.
i don't think that did too much for Jesus' reputation...the onlookers were upset because, after all,
Zaccheus was a sinner! (as if they were not )
but Jesus loved him...publicly.
and after receiving that love, Zaccheus makes some pretty radical changes.
nowhere in the Law does God require anyone to give away half of what they have,
or to repay four-fold.
but God's love embodied in the grace given in the Gospel inspires what the Law cannot.
God's Law is good! it comes from God, shows us His character, and how we are to live.
but only the love God gives to us, minus our merit, in a dramatically one-way fashion,
has the power to inspire real obedience...the kind that can make it through the long march of our lives.
sorry...that went a long way beyond your question!
but some things i was musing on...
love,
ellie