The young man looked thoughtful.
I was interviewing him for church membership, and I had asked him: “Do you love God?”
He stared at me blankly for a short while.
Then he said to me: “What do you mean by love?”
I had never been asked this before.
Once, many years ago, when courting my one-day-to-be wife, I had blurted out I loved her.
She had replied, “No, you don’t. You can’t possibly know that so soon into our relationship.”
It seemed best at the time just to agree with her: “Yes, you are right, I couldn’t possibly know…”
But I never seriously considered that I didn’t actually know what love is.
Until that day, many years later, when challenged by this young man: “What do you mean by love?”
It’s a question which is not all that easy to answer.
A Pig in Paradise
Back in 2008 there were two big stories that broke the same week:
One was the huge financial crash on Wall Street, and the end of the world as we know it.
The other (which took up almost as much space in newspapers here) concerned a pig named “Bruce”.
Bruce had been living in the bush around Uki (a small town, in northern NSW) for the past five weeks. No one knows where he came from, or how he got there.
But, out of nowhere, he moved on to the property of one, Caroline Hayes – a 63 year old woman, living on her own, on a small farm.
Ms Hayes, apparently, was even lonelier than you would think, because she took pity on Bruce, treated him as a friend – and started to feed him.
Bruce, apparently, could tell when he was on a good thing; thought he was living in paradise – and, subsequently, refused to give Ms Hayes any peace unless she did feed him.
She went to the markets and brought back 300 avocadoes, and 10 kg of peaches – but it was all gone in half an hour.
And still Bruce wanted more.
But Ms Hayes had no more.
So Bruce bit her.
He literally bit the hand that fed him.
Then he started to terrorize his benefactor:
– He’s bailed her up, and kept her a virtual prisoner in her own home.
– He forced himself into the family car, as well as an old school bus on the property, looking for food.
– He wrecked the yard, the fences and the dam that is on the property.
What would you do with Bruce? How do you solve a problem like Bruce?
All the inhabitants of Uki knew what they would like to do with Bruce… all, except for Ms Hayes, who is on record as saying, “I am quite worried because the whole town wants to eat him.”
I’m afraid I’m with the rest of the town on that one.
People in Paradise
A long time ago there was another Paradise.
It was a beautiful place – full of all kinds of fruit trees, and other food that was pleasant to eat.
Into this Paradise, one day wandered, not a pig, but two human beings. They were our first parents.
And we know how they came to be there. They were created by the same God who had created that Paradise specifically so they could live there.
God didn’t create them because He was lonely.
He had Himself – He didn’t need anyone else.
Father, Son, Spirit: perfect harmony, perfect love.
God did not need anyone else.
Still, God created the first Man and the first Woman so that they could have fellowship with Him; and He with them.
He put them in the Garden Paradise He had made, and took care of them – this, on a far grander scale than Ms Hayes took care of the pig.
Around about here you might not like where this story is going.
You don’t like the fact that God’s care for us is being compared to a human’s care for a pig; or even comparing sinners to pigs for that matter – even though the Bible itself does (Matt 7:6, 2 Pet 2:21-22).
But, fair enough! The comparison breaks down on a number of fronts.
For instance:
– The difference between the uncreated God and us as creatures is infinitely greater than the difference between Ms Hayes (or, anyone of us) and a pig.
– Also, though Ms Hayes took in the pig and tried to befriend him, she didn’t actually own him. In fact, no one knows who owned him.
On the other hand, God does own you.
God made you.
Whether you like it or not, He owns you!
Pigs in Revolt
In fact, most people don’t like it.
Adam and Eve didn’t like it.
They lived in Paradise. They had everything they could wish for.
They had each other – perfect love, perfect harmony, perfect sexual intimacy.
They had dream jobs to go to each day; jobs you and I would die for. Their work was rich and rewarding.
This God was no tyrant, exacting from them unremitting toil, making them serve Him as despised and downtrodden slaves.
And, every 7th day came the best of all, when they joined together to worship their God.
They had a perfect relationship with this God who had made them.
God spoke with them as friends!
Till one day…
One day, they objected to being Someone else’s property.
They rebelled against their Creator. They disobeyed.
They were not satisfied with what God fed them day by day. They wanted more… and more, and more.
They bit the hand that fed them!
They tried to force themselves into God’s residence. They tried to take over His place, to usurp His position.
They wrecked the Paradise He had made by their foolish rebellion.
The whole thing fell apart – when they bit the hand that fed them.
Pigs in Paradise!
Their greatest sin
Jesus was once asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment that we should obey?”
Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
The greatest sin is to break the greatest commandment.
Our greatest sin is that you and I have not “loved the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.”
Every time you and I refuse to trust God, think He is being too hard on us, think, “Yes, I know He has commanded this or that, but that doesn’t apply to me, I am a special case…” we break the greatest of His commandments to love Him “with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.”
The second greatest sin is to break the second greatest commandment: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Every time we lie to another, hate another, entertain adulterous thoughts in our minds we have broken the second greatest commandment.
We have not loved this God “with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.”
Your greatest sin, my greatest sin, is that we have not loved this God like that.
The Bible says: “ In this is love, not that we loved God…” (1 John 4:10)
We did not love God!
Adam and Eve’s greatest sin was that they did not love God.
WWGD
What would God do next?
God must be propitiated.
But what if He were not?
More than one hundred years ago, the Austrian Empire dominated (what are now), the Czech and Slovak Republics, the Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
So when a Bosnian Serb assassinated the heir to the throne of this vast Empire, Austria was none too happy. It demanded to be propitiated.
It furnished a list of ten demands which, unless they were all met, would mean that this super-power would not be satisfied.
Serbia met (more or less) all their demands.
But this was not good enough. Austria was not appeased.
The First World War saw over 60 million soldiers mobilized in Europe alone, 40 million casualties, and 20 million military and civilian deaths.
Such are the consequences when a tin pot super-power is not propitiated.
I don’t even want to think about what non-appeasement would mean for a God, who is the Creator of all that is.
What would God do?
Would it be the “Bruce” solution (that we all deserve): to be carted away from Paradise to meet a gruesome end?
WDGD
What did God do?
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us…” 1 John 4:10
How can that be?
How can this God love us?
Could a woman love a pig that had bitten the hand that fed him?
Maybe – perhaps a woman on her own could be so lonely that she needs the companionship, even of a pig that’s turned against her.
But then again, perhaps she wouldn’t. For all her protestations of how she would miss him, she still got rid of that pig.
How much less, could God still love us – when we have turned on Him and bitten the hand that fed us!
When the experiment with human beings failed, when our race turned against our Creator and bit His hand, God didn’t need us!
Father, Son and Spirit have each other.
They dwell together in perfect harmony, perfect love, perfect peace.
“Let the human race go. They didn’t deserve Your kindness in the first place. They didn’t even deserve to be created in the first place.
“Let them go – just as You let the rebellious angels go; You didn’t chase after them!
“Let them go. They deserve only to be turned out of Paradise forever, to remain forever under Your eternal wrath and curse.
“Let them go.”
But instead:
The news that shook the universe
The melt-down on Wall Street was nothing compared to this.
The 1st World War, and the 2nd World War, all wrapped up together hardly causes a ripple compared to this.
The rise and fall of all the mighty empires, down through the course of history, is nothing compared to this.
“In this is love, not that we loved God… but that He loved us”
How can that be? How could this God love us?
What is the nature of this love?
“…and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
God sent His Son: His beloved Son, His only-begotten Son, the Son that He could love forever, and that He knows would love Him forever, constantly and without wavering.
Compare that with the fickle, changeable love of the human beings He created, who one minute professed to love Him, and the next, revolted against His rule, His love, and turned in hatred on Him.
In His Son, God knew love He can count on forever.
God sent this Son… to be the propitiation for our sins!
This was the news that shook the universe.
When Bruce the pig was taken off to… to who knows where?
But, if he was taken off (as we presume) to the abattoir – would you have gone up to the rangers who took him away, and pleaded with them:
“Don’t take this pig away. I love this pig. Please, leave him with me.
“Here, take instead, my son, my beloved son, my only begotten son. Take him to the abattoir instead.”
Would you do that?
For a pig?
God was offended when we turned and bit the hand that fed us.
God must be propitiated. Justice must be done.
Someone had to pay.
That Someone was not us… though, certainly, that would’ve been fair.
That Someone was God’s Son: His beloved Son! His only begotten Son!
God sent His Son, to suffer in the place of those of us who had behaved like pigs – and worse.
God sent His Son, to die upon a cross.
God sent His Son, to be the propitiation for our sins.
“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.” (1 John 4:9)
God sent His Son:
– to die,
– that we might live.
What is love?
“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.”
This is not a love that just overlooks sin – and then gets on with life.
This is a love that sees sin; it recognises sin as sin.
That’s the significance of the word “propitiation” here:
– God needs to be propitiated because His holy nature is offended.
– His holy nature is offended because of SIN: your SIN! my SIN!
This is not a love that overlooks sin.
But, it is a love that gives up a beloved Son, so that sin will be punished, and a holy God will be propitiated.
Next time you are challenged (as I was, all those years ago) as to what is love…
In this is love!
The cross is love!
God giving up His beloved Son to save pigs in Paradise – that is love!
What kind of love is this!