Love Letter: Colossians

Below is a blog from a great blog I follow. Enjoyed this post today.


This is Day 16 of 31 Days of Love Letters, in which I explore God's love as found in 31 books of the Bible. To find out more or to know why I'm doing this, please read this post first. The list of books I will be writing from can be found here.

The way of the world is performance.
The way of the world is meriting love.
The way of the world is fluid, ever-changing, ever-evolving love.
The way of the world is love that is imperfect and incomplete, no matter how well people love.
The way of the world is that relationships can be marred, broken, and destroyed. They have to be maintained and worked at.
The way of the world is unforgiveness and bitterness.

Unfortunately, we often assume that the way of the world is also the way of God:
He is about performance.
We have to merit His love.
His love for us is fluid and changeable.
His love is imperfect (It can't cover all my sin) and incomplete (If I don't keep up my spiritual disciplines, I will lose it).
We have to keep the spiritual plates spinning to keep His love and His favor.
He is unforgiving and bitter toward us.

Colossians tells a different story:

"Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him.." (2:8-10)

The way of the world and the way of God completely oppose one another.

It's so difficult to understand and believe a love that is so wholly unlike worldly love. But according to Scripture, God's love is a complete love.

His love does not depend on our behavior or performance (good or bad).
His love does not change.
His love is perfect; there is nothing it cannot handle.
His love cannot be lost.
We don't have to work to maintain His love for us.

All of these are true because His love was completed for us on the cross. When we take up that cross and give Him our lives, it's a done deal ("It is finished"); we are complete. Nothing can ever change His love because when He looks at us, He sees Christ.

And we know how He feels about His Son.