The Choice Part
By Lexi Cole
“For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9
We live in a world of choices. I chose my college, my friends, my major. I choose what to wear each morning, what to eat each day and what time to go to bed each night. Even more so in this world of choices, after we enter a relationship with Christ, we are given a choice that is incredibly easy to write about and incredibly hard to live out.By Lexi Cole
“For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9
We must choose to love. The choice part of love is active. Tom Holladay writes in his book, The Relationship Principles of Jesus, you “cannot command an emotion, but you can command an action. Understanding the difference between emotion and action - - between what you feel and what you do - - empowers every relationship you have…Jesus comes along and says, ‘I command you to love in a new kind of way.’ Jesus commands us …to act with love.” (1)
There are countless examples of the choice to love. John writes that Jesus’ active choices to love were so great that “if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (2) The Bible itself is full of stories where people choose to authentically love despite opposition. In fact, the storyline of Scripture shows the choice part of love. God creates us for relationship; we chose to reject Him; God chooses to make a way to restore our relationship through with Jesus; if we choose to respond to His call, we are able to enter into relationship with Him; God chooses to send us the Holy Spirit to indwell and guide us as we are His Church to a suffering world until God returns.
I am not the expert. I realize the pain it takes to love someone who has deeply hurt us. I realize in our world of choices, this is the hardest one. I realize there are people in my life whom the Holy Spirit is telling me to love. Tom Holladay ends his chapter by saying don’t give up because “not giving up means you realize that Jesus takes whatever little we give Him and does so much more… Don’t give up on people; the minute you do, they’ll surprise you. Don’t give up on prayer; God is doing so much more through your prayers than you can see. Don’t give up on God’s promises…. Choose instead to act. Act on Jesus’ command – and ‘love one another.’” (3)
GOING DEEPER:
1. Who is someone in your life whom you need to intentionally choose to love?
2. What will you do today to actively love that person?
FURTHER READING:
Matthew 22:37; Luke 10: 27
Lexi is an Elementary Education major at Bethel University. The last two summers, she’s been the Children’s Ministries intern at Oakwood.
(1) Holladay, Tom. The Relationship Principles of Jesus. Zondervan, 2008, pg. 89.
(2) John 21:25b (NIV)
(3) Holladay, Tom. The Relationship Principles of Jesus. Zondervan, 2008, pg. 93-94
