05/22/2024 – The Purpose of Love is Salvation
Romans 2: 4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Love has a purpose. It is never a wasted feeling. God’s love always has a purpose: salvation. Beyond provision, healing and all material blessings that we receive in this life, God so loved the world that He gave His Son so that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life!
The purpose of love is salvation! It is fullness of life! This must be true of our love, because it comes from God! The purpose of our love in marriage, in the family, in friendship, goes beyond having a good time when we get together and helping each other through the perils of our lives on earth, for none of that means anything if the person we love is lost!
How, then, should we love to achieve this purpose? We should love like God loves. The love of God has features that we would rather not associate with love. We need to understand and apply these to our lives in order to love the way God loves, and to achieve the purpose of God’s love.
God’s salvation love is forbearing. It has a high capacity to tolerate offenses. When you love, you must develop this capacity. You cannot allow every small offense to derail your love. There are many offenses that you must overlook. Others, you will need to allow for time to grow and understand.
There are offenses we must bear. God’s love is a great example of that. His forbearance leads us to repentance. The purpose of not allowing minor offenses to stop the flow of God’s love is the faith that this love will lead to repentance.