LOVE-LABOUR or LABOUR-LOVE?
A decorative plate we have states: “It is a pleasure to labour for those we love.” Just think about that for a moment. It certainly isn’t difficult to labour or do things for your spouse when you love them, your children when you’re there, or for friends when they’re in need and you can lend a hand. It’s not a chore to do something for someone you care about and really, if the care is genuine, it would be hard not to do something to help where help is needed.
This concept of love-labour or labour-love is really the main concept of the Bible and of the Christian-God relationship. To my knowledge, Christianity is the only “religion” where relationship is the main thrust and God is portrayed not just as a God of authority, but where “God is love”(1 John 4:8). In other religions, man must labour to obtain God’s approval, augmenting that with sacrifices or other rituals but all the time not really knowing if what is being done is sufficient to prevent God’s displeasure. Love is often nowhere in the cards. Even in the end, one may obtain a reward but not necessarily God’s love. If should be more difficult to labour under those circumstances where God’s love is not ensured.
But in reality, God has shown His love for us before we do anything. We are told that: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16), who in effect came as a substitute for us and to show us that true love is the way. He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Now, if God is love, what he’s really saying is “[Love] is the way, the truth and the life…” and this is reflected in the commandment “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength”(Deuteronomy 6:5), and also “…You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and ‘your neighbour as yourself’”(Luke 10:27).
1 John puts it this way: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”(1 John 4:7-10).
So, is it a pleasure to labour for those we love? God through Christ laboured - he strove and exerted His power of mind and spirit - for us because He loved us and in return we should be willing to labour for Him if we truly love Him. But we labour because we have been first loved; we don’t work to obtain acceptance or approval, neither do we have to do sacrifice or ritual. We are loved and labour as a result of that love. “But be doers of the word…” for “…faith without works is dead” (James 1:22 & 2:20).
One should labour because you are loved and it should be a pleasure to labour in return if you love in return. It is not right to labour to gain God’s approval or acceptance because “[f]or by grace you have been saved through faith…not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
It IS a pleasure to labour for those we love;.. and it is something to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment