Perfecting Love

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48

God is steadily and relentlessly perfecting the love of each of His children. There are no exceptions. Every circumstance and situation a believer faces is permitted and used by God for the purpose of perfecting our ability to "walk as Jesus did."

I John 2: 3-6 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

In the metaphor of the Vine and branches in John 15 it is easy to see that the Vinedresser is constantly perfecting every branch's ability to deliver the fruit of love that is already perfected in the Vine. Perfected love is abiding in every believer because Jesus in us is perfect love. Even though this perfect love abides in us, God must work in us until this perfect love is formed in us and we are instantly obedient to perfect love.

The Vinedresser has perfect faith in His perfect Vine. He works with us as His branches until our faith grows enough to receive and release perfect love. He perfects our love in a world where love normally stops. He perfects this love in us until it cannot be stopped. He perfects it until it will not fail.

I recently was asked to translate for a pastor visiting from the Philippines. He preached in English and I translated into Portuguese. He was using the sickness and death of Lazarus in John 11 to illustrate how disappointment in God's seeming unconcern can turn into an appointment with God's perfecting love. It was a powerful sermon.

I was doing well with the translation until he began to talk about a time when God allowed nine armed men to break into his home, tie up four of his five children, and repeatedly rape his fifteen year old daughter. He explained that he and his wife were away for the evening teaching a Bible course as all this was happening.

The story was so shocking I could hardly keep from weeping as he became emotional telling the story. When he concluded his sermon he asked the congregation if they wanted to hear how his daughter is doing. They did.

He told them his daughter is married and expecting her fourth child. He told them her husband is a pastor of a church that has over 3000 members. He told them that she counsels women who have been sexually abused. He told them he still weeps for what she went through, but he is so very proud of her for being a woman of faith, hope and love.

The church this pastor leads has over 20,000 members. God has perfected this man's love and the love of his family through the trials and tribulations he and his family have faced. The thieves that broke into his home and hurt his family are the true prisoners. He and his family have chosen the freedom of obedient, perfected love.

Perfect love is so important God allowed His perfect Son to die for us. Perfecting our love is so important that God will allow our suffering to perfect it in us. Having our love perfected by what God allows men to do is the only way for us to be finally free of the evil that humans do to other humans. When our love is perfected like Jesus' love we can live lovingly among those who do not even know love. Now we can "walk as Jesus did."

By faith we trust God that the perfecting of our love is worth the cost.

Romans 8: 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.