interest in food, clothes, home, family, wealth, success, or fame? Would you not ask yourself, "What is the use of living?" Suppose at this very moment you suddenly had a bitter quarrel with the per son you cherished most and real ized that he or she loved you only for what he could get out of you; would your life not fold up from the inside so you could not go on another day? Even if you are some how going along from day to day thinking yourself reasonably hap py, could you live the rest of your life if there was no hope whatever that someday someone will love you with a true, deep, and satisfy ing love? You would probably des pair and end your life, or if you could not go that far, gradually destroy yourself by dissipating yourself carelessly and cheaply un til there was nothing left of you but a living corpse. You are getting along today eith er because you are receiving some semblance of this "in spite of" kind of love from someone or else hop ing some day to find it. But in this society of ours we cannot receive enough of this kind of love to sat isfy us fully because everybody is in need of it himself, and nobody has a surplus to give away. We expect some dear one near us to give us this love, but that person himself is also seeking it from someone else. In this world, we only get enough of it to whet our appetites and to show us how much we need it. The greatest scarcity in the world exists in the realm of this "in spite" kind of love. IV. JESUS CHRIST OFFERS US THE "IN SPITE OF" LOVE It is the wonderful message of
the Bible that in Jesus Christ this kind of love first became available to man in satisfying fulness. Man kind had been hungry for it down through the ages, not knowing where to look. God did not leave man empty in his longing and hop ing. He sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to bring to each person more than enough love to satisfy him. Through the coming of Jesus, for the first time in the his tory of the world, man was able to see and feel this absolutely pure love with his own heart, not just to hunger for it or to speculate about it. The love that Christ brings to us from God is not the "if" kind of love. God does not say to us, "I will love you if you become a Christian." He loves Christians and non-Christians without any partial ity. He does not say, "I will love you if you are a good and moral person, if you go to church, if you give contributions to Christian causes, if you read the Bible, if you pray, if you become a minister or a priest, etc., etc." There are no "ifs" of any kind. He loves us ex actly as we are. He would love us just as much if we were worse. If day by day we became more de generate and rebellious, He would still love us with the same com plete love. He does not love us for what He can get out of us. There is no requirement we must meet, no condition to fulfill. How can I prove this? The fact that Jesus died on the cross is the proof. Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world and lived out His life in goodness and love toward all men, especially giving Himself to the poor and despised from whom He could ex pect nothing in return. He paid a
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