Driven by love...

Driven by love...

By Bobby Schuller, Crystal Cathedral Pastor

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

- Ephesians 4:2

Recently I was in Greece following the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, and we finished the trip in Athens, on a hill near the Areopagus where you can see the Parthenon and the Acropolis in the background, and all the white buildings. There, I preached a sermon called "Paul: The Apostle of Love."

And that's exactly who Paul was. Paul was an apostle of love. Many people read Paul's writings and they think he was strict or stern because of some of the language he uses. But truly, when you read Paul's letters and read Paul's story, the message that comes across over and over again is the grace and love of God towards us and the grace and love of God we ought to show towards one another. It is the same message that Jesus had - the love of God and the love of your neighbor.

This was what Paul was driven by: He was driven by the love of God that was shown to him in the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul believed that if God gave Jesus for Paul, that means that God loves Paul as much as He loves Jesus. And if that's true, it also means that God loves you as much as God loves Jesus. If He didn't, He wouldn't have given Christ on the cross for you and He did.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you so much for your unending love and for showing your love to me through your Son, Jesus Christ. Without your love, I would be lost. Help me to share that same love with everyone I meet. Amen.