Love
Read Hebrews 12:4-11.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
What does it mean that “God is love”? Think, for a moment, about your parents or another significant adult in your life. Does the unconditional love of a parent equate to a times of happiness, fun, and ease? Sometimes, it does. But the love of a parent also requires discipline and hard conversations. The more we love someone, the more we feel inclined to feel angry, scared, or heartbroken on their behalf. You probably feel protective and defensive of those you love the most, willing to keep them safe by any means necessary.
This type of love is powerful, yet it is just a shadow of God’s love for His children. We are quick to meditate on and talk about the “easy” parts of His love for us—that it is unconditional and everlasting, and that it is more profound than any earthly love we will ever experience. We’re less comfortable, though, with the reality that His discipline and wrath are also present in this love.
God is serious about the flourishing of His people, and with that, He is serious about sin. God disciplines His children because He loves them. Does a loving parent let their children sit in the things that will cause them pain and hardship? No, through loving rebuke, they call them out of those things and into something better—even when that requires discipline.
So why are we talking about this during Advent and not a few months from now during Lent—the season in which we spend time meditating on our sin and need for a Savior? Because when we say that God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—is love, and when we sing that “love came down at Christmas,” it’s important that we know what we are saying. The good news of this Advent season is that Jesus came to save sinners—because He loves sinners. He was born so that He could live a perfect life, die the death we deserved, defeat sin and death, and then send the Holy Spirit to help us, all these years later, to walk in these truths. That is a birthday and a love worth celebrating.
[Matt Chandler (2021). (p. 49). Family Advent Devotional - Bible Study eBook. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]