Entitled to Love

In March 2020, BuzzFeed reported that Taylor Swift had spent a day giving money to her fans who had been affected by the coronavirus, about $15,000. Admittedly, that's not much to her, but it's still $15k. However, on Facebook, one person commented, "Honestly, it's selfish as hell to me. Millions of people need that money. Not just her fans."

I mean, what do you say? When someone is generous and is criticized for being selfish, we can see entitlement at work. That was an egregious comment, but don't WE often feel entitled, like we have a right to something that's not ours?

Perhaps we can imagine a world with love, a world where God is love. Unfortunately, this amazing truth is often shared in a boring, routine, and predictable way. So, perhaps it is no surprise that we are bored by it too!

But when we consider the splendor of the incomprehensibly great Creator, who exists in Triune glory, who is holy and just, it is staggering to think that this God would personally care for us.

Charles Wesley wrote a well-known hymn, And Can It Be, that expresses the wonder we ought to feel when considering God's love:

"And can it be that I should gain An int'rest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?"

Our default approach to God's love might be one of entitlement. Of course, he should love someone like me! I'm pretty special. God's lucky to have me! But at this point in First Love, we know better. It is a surprise — a wonderful surprise — that God loves us.

First, let's be clear that God wants us to know that he is love. It is one of the plainest teachings of the Bible. For instance, in 1 John 4:8 and 4:16, we are taught, plainly, "God is love."

In Luke 3, we heard the Spirit's voice communicating to the Son about the Father, "And the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, 'You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.'"

So we know that the Father loves the Son.

In John 14, Jesus says, "I love the Father."

And what about the Spirit? In Romans 5, we learn that the Spirit is how God's love is poured into our hearts and in Galatians 5, we are taught the first fruit of the Spirit is love.

Our Triune God is love.

But what does that mean?

"Love" is not some static property. It is an active, dynamic reality.

I'm a dad. I have a son and a daughter. And, as a good dad, I can sometimes focus on the needs of my children for up to 30 seconds at a time before reconsidering my own needs.

Being a father means regularly sacrificing what I want to give my children what they need. It is a constant battle against my selfishness to love them. The very nature of love means that I easily become exhausted from the effort that love requires of me.

But what if it was my very nature to be loving? Then I could always love my children, and everyone else, without fail, and without stopping.

This is the kind of love that our unchanging and eternal God has for us. As Psalm 103 says, "But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him." From everlasting to everlasting!