How This World is a Perfectly Safe Place*
People who are trusting in Jesus are safe in his care no matter what happens in this world.
*Reposted for new subscribers
How can I say that this world is a perfectly safe place to be if you are walking with Jesus in his kingdom? Was Jesus nuts to say we shouldn’t worry? (Mt. 6:25-34). Did he not see the wars and the famine and the other forms of evil in this world? He sees them and still reassures us.
I hope you noticed a couple things Jesus said in that passage.
Verse 26 Look at the birds. . . your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers . . . he will certainly care for you.
Jesus says you are much more valuable to your Heavenly Father than the birds he feeds, and he will certainly care for you if he so lavishly decorates the wildflowers. Our problem is we have a hard time believing it sometimes. Let’s look more closely at what God has to say about all this.
God Really Loves You
Do you believe that? I know, sometimes we believe God’s love for us is based on our circumstances, or on things that have happened to us in the past. Perhaps you have been severely mistreated by someone, or maybe your dad died when you were a teenager and needed him most. It is easy to look at that situation and say, “If God loves me why did he let this happen to me?” These feelings are real and the question deserves a serious answer. Some people think we should never question God, but in the Scriptures it is common for people to ask “why?” when they are suffering.
First, let’s look at what God’s word says about his love for us. Then, because we all have this gut feeling that actions speak louder than words, let’s see if God’s actions back up what he says about his love for us.
Before we do any of that, we must get a working definition of love so that we will all understand what we’re talking about.
DEFINITION OF THE KIND OF LOVE GOD HAS
Love is an overused word in English. We say we love strawberry cake, but we eat it. We say we love our new headphones, and toss them when they get a short. We use the very same word when we say we love our wife or our favorite TV show! It’s hard to know what is meant by the word “love” in English. Greek is a much more precise language. That is good, especially when we are wanting to understand God’s love for us.
There are 3 words used in the New Testament for love. One is for romantic love, one is for brotherly love, and the third is a special word referring to the kind of love God has for us that is completely different from the first two. It is the word agape. Agape love is the self-sacrificing love of God that seeks the very best for the recipient of that love. Here’s a definition: agape: to will the very best for a person and to act accordingly.
WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS ABOUT HIS LOVE FOR US
Here are some scriptures where God tells us that he loves us and shows us by his actions. Words indicating God’s love are in italic. Words indicating his actions are in bold:
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus, Jn 3:16.
For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. . . But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Rom 5:6,8.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms (the invisible landscape) because we are united with Christ Jesus. Eph 2:4-6.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world (the visible landscape) don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 1 Jn 3:1.
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 Jn 4:10.
Okay. That is just a small sample of all the ways God communicates his love for us by words and actions.
Have you ever loved someone deeply and they refused to see it, or worst of all, they thought you had bad motives for showing them you loved them? Sometimes we treat God like that.
God’s Love for Us Is The Same Regardless of Our Circumstances
People tend to think if God is pleased with someone, that person will have money, health, ease and comfort. But when you walk with Jesus in his kingdom, you are not exempt from difficulty and suffering:
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth (the visible landscape) you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Jesus, Jn 16:33.
“Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Jesus, Mt 24:9,13.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (visible landscape) are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (invisible landscape). Rom 8:18.
God’s love is not dependent upon our circumstances. His love is present no matter what we are experiencing:
Paul expresses it well:
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. Rom 8:35-37.
Notice that Christ’s love is present with us in every horrible situation that Paul could imagine. “Threatened with death” is a softer interpretation than might be expected when you look at the Greek text, in which Paul asks, can the “sword” separate us from the love of Christ. It seems pretty apparent that he meant “execution” when he used “sword” in this context. Look at the following sentence about the disciples being slaughtered like sheep! Wait a minute!! Can he really be saying that?! Scholars are pretty sure Paul was himself executed in Rome. He was beheaded. He lived out what he had taught.
Paul had written in one of his letters:
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 Cor 5:1.
When he wrote that maybe he had in mind Jesus’ words:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Jesus, Jn 11:25-26.
The World is a Perfectly Safe Place to Be!
Here is how this world is a perfectly safe place to be: no matter what happens to us, if we belong to Jesus, we are perfectly safe in the invisible landscape. If we are executed like Paul, we step out of this body into the presence of God. The worst thing the visible landscape can do to us is turned into victory for us as we gain an entrance into the presence of our Lord.
C.S. Lewis’ favorite author, George McDonald, put it this way:
“We do not have souls.
We are souls.
We have bodies.
When we die we aren’t buried and our soul goes off somewhere. We go to heaven and leave behind our body like hair clippings left behind on the barbershop floor.”
Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me. Ps 23:4.
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