I remember it like yesterday. However, I can’t tell you what songs were sung in church that day or what the preacher’s sermon was about. The man of God gave an invitation. It was good of him to do that, but I don’t remember his words either. I do remember the song God put in my heart!

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD. Psalm 40:3

I do remember God’s words speaking directly to me!

The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple. Psalm 119:130

I do remember God’s invitation to come!

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

And I do remember God’s love piercing my heart!

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7

There was no doubt, no fear, and no hesitation. It was just God and me. He called out to me. I ran into His loving arms. He has never let go! I was nearly six years old. It was the closing ceremony of a two-week vacation Bible school I was invited to by my neighbors, the Arnolds. I was sitting at the end of the pew with my class. That was a good thing since I literally ran down the aisle before the pastor could finish his invitation. Mrs. Arnold followed close behind. I’ve often wondered if she realized what was happening or if she thought I was going to make a scene. Either way she quickly caught on to God’s divine intervention, knelt down beside me, and listened to a little child come unto Jesus. I have never been the same!

For God so loved (agapaō) the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

We love (agapaō) because He first loved (agapaō) us. I John 4:19

For the Father Himself loves (phileō) you, because you have loved (phileō) Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. John 16:27

We cannot love, phileō or agapaō, without God!

Our sinful, deceitful, desperately wicked heart does not have the capacity to love. In ourselves, we do not have the patience, kindness, goodness, grace, mercy, faith, hope, or any other pure virtue required for love to grow and flourish. We cannot save ourselves and we cannot love from within ourselves. Only in Christ can we love, and only through His Spirit can we give and receive love.

Our Master Teacher, Jesus, told his original eleven students “love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). It should be easy enough: follow His example. I mean, you and I have had similar instruction from various human teachers. Follow this method, this outline, this strategy, and you will have success. Sounds doable, doesn’t it? Well…sometimes!

I’ve never been good at drawing. As a small child, my horses and dogs looked exactly the same and neither looked like a horse or a dog. They resembled more of bloated rats with pointy ears and twisted snouts. My houses and trees and cars didn’t fare much better. Consequently, when I was in junior high and art class was a requirement, I waited until the last possible semester to include that course in my schedule. I wish I could remember the teacher’s name because she deserves a medal of valor in her attempt to teach me how to draw, to paint…anything! She knew I was special when my first assignment, an apple tree, looked like a lollipop with measles. 

This dear teacher had the patience of Job! She gave me example after example. She demonstrated the various positions of the pencil or charcoal and she exaggerated the motions for shading and outlining. More than once, she literally guided my hand with her own in hopes of developing some muscle memory for the art of drawing. I wanted to learn to draw, to paint, to do anything artsy. I just couldn’t get the techniques at all. I desperately tried to mimic her examples and duplicate her guiding hand, but without any success. My horses still looked like dogs which looked like bloated rats, and my trees still looked like lollipops with measles. 

The result? Let’s just say abstract art was and is my only hope. I passed that class with a “C” which stood for “Can’t be helped!” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be helped. I loved art! I so wanted to draw the weathered seaman that the boy next to me did in charcoal. I wanted desperately to paint the mountain landscape the star pupil effortlessly created in what seemed like just minutes. All I had to do was a pencil drawing of a sea shell. It looked like a squashed cabbage leaf. All my efforts to mimic and reproduce could not overcome the simple fact that I had no, I mean zero, natural ability as an artist.

The same is true for all of us when it comes to love. In and of ourselves, we can spend a lifetime attempting to reproduce Christ’s example. We can exert a lot of energy trying to duplicate His acts of love, but we will fall woefully short every time because we do not have a natural ability to either phileō or agapaō. It is only when we come to our knees, cry out to Jesus for His salvation, and experience His love pierce our hearts that we can we even begin to truly love. 

Discussion

• Read John 21. Remembering that both phileō and agapaō loves are important to God, answer the following questions:
  • If you were one of the disciples on that beach, what would you think of this encounter?
  • How would you describe Jesus’ love for Peter? 
  • How would you describe Peter’s love for Jesus? 
  • What would you think Jesus was trying to accomplish?
  • What would you think Peter learned from this encounter?