Living this love is not so easy  

Newly knighted Bono’s confession:

“My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. What does that mean? What it means for me: a study of the life of Christ,” Bono says. “Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable situation of all, without honor. . . . God is love, and as much as I respond [sighs] in allowing myself to be transformed by that love and acting in that love, that’s my religion. Where things get complicated for me, is when I try to live this love. Now, that’s not so easy.”

Bono of U2

From whence comes the power to “live this love” and “be transformed by that love”? That’s entire sanctification, the love of God can break through and transform the entire human heart and life. E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist missionary to India during the time of Ghandi, speaks powerfully at this point:

“The only really strong Christian is the one who lets love get ahold of his total nature—he loves with the strength of the mind, the strength of the emotion, the strength of the will, the strength of the body, so that the whole being is caught up by a burning passion of love. Like the rays that are gathered into our focus by a burning glass, so he kindles love and devotion in others. He is contagious. The disciplined make disciples.”

E. Stanley Jones, Abundant Living, Thursday, week 50