Extravagant Love
How do you demonstrate extravagant love to those you love? I would have to admit I could do better in this space. I love Lee, who agreed to marry me forty-eight years ago. I tell her often and try to demonstrate my love by attempting to be more thoughtful, and using words of affirmation. Gary Chapman has described the five love languages as Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.
To be frank, I can easily confuse what is my love language with Lee’s love language. But somehow, we have negotiated our love affair of marriage well. And you know what? We still love each other and are enjoying keeping our love story going. I do know that I can improve on quality time in our relationship and some other areas as well.
Love is important in finding our identity and confidence. I love being with my grandchildren. You can see that Henry as a six-year-old and Gracie only 18 months old have a joy and confidence that comes from the love of their mum and dad and the extended family.
In an interview with Kerry O’Brien from the ABC years ago, the former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, described the unconditional support of his mother and grandmother “who invested a ton of love in me.” In his public life Mr Keating did not always demonstrate the softer side, but when he talked of what this love meant to him, he said, “You’ve got to go through life with someone thinking you’re special.” He added, “The love quotient working for you is very powerful . . . it’s almost like wearing an asbestos suit. You go through the fire but you’re not going to be burned because someone loves you, you are complete, you are together.”
On a spiritual, emotional level, there is something significant about understanding the love of God who has invested all his love in each one of us. The apostle Paul catches this most beautifully in his prayer for the Ephesians (see Ephesians 3:14-21). Please take time to read this prayer that explains that there is an inner power than transforms the lives of followers of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Paul wants you and me to “have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Ephesians 3:18,19).
Experiencing the love of God is powerful and we can accomplish infinitely more than we can dare to ask or hope (see verse 20). Lately, I have been focusing on the story from Luke 7:36 – 50 when a sinful woman anointed Jesus. She causes a scandal when she anointed Jesus’ feet with an expensive perfume. John 12:5 notes it was worth a year’s wages. That is an extravagant expression of love! Think about how much money you earn in a year? Yet this woman had experienced the forgiving grace and love of Jesus. In the discussion with Simon the Pharisee, Jesus explains why the woman was so extravagant in showing her love. “I tell you her sins – and they are many – have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only a little love.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 2:47, 48).
A question that sticks out of this story for all of us is, do we appreciate how much we have been forgiven? And, if we do, are we showing love for Jesus? Little love means we do not think we need much forgiveness and, in fact, we may even imagine God owes us, rather than the other way around. Extravagant love is powerfully seen in the life of Jesus and above all at the cross. How we demonstrate our love for God is in how we love people. What if our churches became a community that demonstrated love for each other and our community? What if we as small groups and Sabbath School classes encouraged each other to be people of extravagant love? John wrote, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God – for God is love” (1 John 4:7, 8).
The world is a lonely place, and right here in Australia, where you and I live, there are people longing to know that somebody loves them with a love that is humble, kind, respectful and tender. No ordinary love will meet the needs of people who are lost – certainly not the popular sexualized love on our screens. Only the love of Jesus will be effective. A leader of our church once wrote, “The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth, because of the church members” (Testimonies, Vol 6, p. 371). As a church, we have sometimes over emphasized the truth. Truth is important, but that is not what wins people to follow Jesus. Ellen White tells us, “If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tender-hearted and pitiful, there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one” (Ibid, Vol. 9, p. 189).
Jesus wants me to be someone who shows extravagant love, so that someone else can come to know the God who is love. Join me on the journey to have influence by becoming more loving. I must admit I have some distance to go.
