The Drab Cloak of Love

My life is forfeit. The only thing God considers valuable is that which is of Himself. God is love. Love is what God values. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn. 3:16). This is the only fellowship with Him: daily participating in His death and life. John says that if we love (meaning practical action), our hearts will be at rest before God and He will do whatever we ask (1 Jn. 3:18-23). Self-sacrifice is the condition on God’s absolute favor in prayer, for it is only then that we are in union with Him and with His will; it is only then when we are living for His purpose; it is only then He can give to us all things without restraint. John also says that it is only when we love practically, when we obey God’s command to love, that we are remaining in Him, for, again, such love is God’s very nature (1 Jn. 3:24). It is not those who call Him Lord who remain in love; it is not those who cast out demons or prophesy; it is not those who have all knowledge or give all they have to the poor or die as martyrs (Matt. 7:21-23; 1 Cor. 13:1-3). It is only those who love, whose bodies are given over without reservation to Him that, through them, He might love those around them. About this, we must think very mundanely. It is the drab, moment by moment inconveniences, favors, and requests placed before us by our fellow men that are the very test of love. It is, as John says, simply seeing our brother in his day to day needs (1 Jn. 3:17). How do we respond? Can we prefer ourselves, our own comfort, our own convenience, even in small things, and claim that God lives in us? It is in the drab cloak of the daily and the mundane that God comes to us and asks for food, for clothing, for sanctuary; it is in our very own local prisons and hospitals that God waits to be visited; it is in the drab cloak of what is, to us, so ordinary and habitual, that God lies waiting for our hard hearts to perceive what is right under our noses and needs attention, love, concern (Matt. 25:35, 36). It is in the things that, because of their very ordinariness, offend our arrogant selves, that God waits to exalt those that humble themselves out of conscience toward Him. Help me Jesus. The Bible says you laid down your life. The sense is that you placed yourself, your life, took your hands off of it, lost it, completely gave up control of it, turned your back on it and walked away. To this we are called and must respond. Outside of this there is no fellowship with you, no eternal life. Outside of this we deceive ourselves in powerless, hollow religion. Outside of this there is no value, no purpose, no reality, no truth. I want you to possess me in truth. I want that my body should be given over to you each moment, lost to myself, given to you and others for whatever purpose—great or mundane—that you and circumstance require. Teach me your ways. Test me and know my wicked thoughts and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23, 24).