Life and Love – one a choice, the other a fact. You can have life without love; but you cannot have love without life.
1 Cor. 15:3-9 “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then He appeared to over 500 brothers at one time, most of whom remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one abnormally born, He also appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
We are given life in Christ.
John 1:4 “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus gave himself freely. God’s grace is a gift to all those who receive Him. However, as with every gift, there is an expectation to use it. What does that mean exactly? Well, recently my mother-in-law gave all her grandchildren (including both of mine) the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Jr. sets. Yesterday when I spoke with her and she was chatting with the children she asked, “Are you both using your chore charts? Have you been reading your books and using your piggy banks?” She gave a gift for purpose and wanted to know if they were using it as such. So it is with the grace of God.
I Cor. 15:10-11 “But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me. Therefore, whether it is I or they, so we preach and so you have believed.”
We see as the original verse in Corinthians continues, that Paul speaks toward God’s grace as having purpose. He says that it was not ineffective, and it made him what he is. That it worked harder because of where he started in order to achieve its purpose. What has God’s grace done to you? As you look back to the beginning of the verse reference, you see that Jesus had appeared to many. Why then doesn’t the passage say just that, a generic “many”? Perhaps because its personal. Or maybe Paul just liked listing everyone else in front of himself in a self-deprecating type of rant… maybe, but for the sake of this perspective, I’m going with the fact that its personal. Each and every one of those people or groups experienced Christ’s resurrection first-hand, and it affected them. Individually. As it should do us.
So again, personally, what has God’s grace done to you? Has it made you work harder? Do you recognize the deficiency that was before and let His grace work in you? Or have you been leaning on it, like a place to put your elbows and prop you up? There is an old movie in which a (very young) David Spade character says, “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean”. Cliché, but true. If God’s grace has given you life, shouldn’t that life be demonstrating love to those around you? Those you like and those you don’t. Those who give the 6 feet separation required, and those who don’t. And even those you politically agree with, and those you don’t.
Love. It’s the perfect testament to His great grace.
Prayers and Petition 