Be Loved

In my last post, I said that the purpose of the Bible is not to stymie us with rules but to woo us with love. I think that's an easy distinction to forget. As Mark Matlock's message reminded me so powerfully yesterday, the purpose of any rule of life is to help us hit the target, not just to keep us from veering off course.

My reading plan had me in Revelation this week. There's an interesting sentence in Jesus' letter to the church at Philadelphia. At the end of all things, when Jesus comes to set all things right, he intends to include an awareness campaign about his love. Verse nine says:

"I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who cain to be Jews though they are not, but are liars — I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you."

At the end, the enemies of the church won't come and acknowledge that we were right, that our politics made sense, that we were smart or righteous or had the right answers. The thing about us that they will recognize — the thing that will identify us — is that Jesus loves us. That is your identity.

Think about that.
Let it sink in.

Your deepest, truest identity is that you are God's beloved. Whatever cinders you are raking, whatever kitchen you are slaving in, whatever clock you are punching, whatever heartache you are facing, whatever failure haunts your past, whatever worry darkens your future, those things do not define you. Your deepest and truest identity is that you are a child of the King and you are loved.

That's what the Bible is about. That's what I want to be about.