I heard a pastor said, “He who is loved much and realises how much he is loved, loves much.” And immediately my mind saw the powerful picture of it in Luke 7.
Jesus was eating in the house of Simon the Pharisee when a woman known in the city as a sinner came into the house. She stood behind Jesus, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with fragrant oil.
Simon looked at the woman and saw her past.
Jesus looked at the woman and saw what grace had done.
Simon could not understand why Jesus would allow such a woman to come near him. So Jesus told him about two people who owed a creditor. One owed a great amount and the other owed much less. Neither could repay, so the creditor forgave them both.
Jesus asked Simon:
“Which of them will love him more?”
Simon answered, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
Jesus said, “You have rightly judged.”
Then Jesus pointed Simon towards the woman.
Simon had given Jesus no water for his feet, but she had washed his feet with her tears. Simon had given him no kiss, but she had continually kissed his feet. Simon had not anointed his head with oil, but she had poured fragrant oil on his feet.
Then Jesus said:
“Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Luke 7:47
Jesus was not saying that her love purchased her forgiveness. Her love was revealing what she had understood about the forgiveness she had received.
She knew she had been forgiven.
She understood the mercy that had been shown to her.
And what she had received from Jesus overflowed in the way she responded to Jesus.
This gives us the principle:
He who is loved much and realises how much he is loved, loves much.
John gives us the foundation for this.
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.”
1 John 4:16
Notice those two words: known and believed.
God’s love is not merely something we are supposed to know intellectually. We are called to know it and believe it.
There is a difference between knowing that God loves people and personally knowing that God loves me.
There is a difference between being able to quote verses about God’s love and allowing that love to become an established reality in my heart.
Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus:
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19
Paul’s prayer is remarkable.
He does not simply pray that they will know more about God.
He prays that they will comprehend the dimensions of Christ’s love.
He wants them to be rooted and grounded in love.
Why?
Because what we are rooted in will eventually determine what flows out of us.
If I am rooted in rejection, I may constantly seek approval.
If I am rooted in fear, I may constantly protect myself.
If I am rooted in performance, I may constantly try to prove myself.
But if I become rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, something changes.
I no longer have to spend my life trying to earn what God has already given me in Christ.
I can receive his love.
I can rest in his love.
I can believe his love.
And then I can begin to love from a place of having been loved.
This is why John says:
«“We love him, because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19»
The direction matters.
He first loved us. Then we love him.
The Christian life begins with receiving, not earning.
The woman in Luke 7 came into that house and poured out love because something had already happened in her heart.
Her tears were an overflow.
Her kisses were an overflow.
The oil was an overflow.
Her love for Jesus was expressing what she had come to understand about Jesus’ love and mercy towards her.
And this is what I believe God wants to do in us.
Not simply make us people who know that God loves us, but people who know and believe his love so deeply that we become rooted and grounded in it.
Because when I know I am loved, I don’t have to manipulate people to love me.
When I know I am loved, I don’t have to perform for God’s approval.
When I know I am loved, I can serve without needing recognition.
When I know I am loved, I can forgive.
When I know I am loved, I can give.
When I know I am loved, I can love people who cannot give anything back to me.
The revelation of God’s love does not make us passive.
It makes us free.
Grace received becomes love expressed.
So perhaps the question is not only:
“Do I love God?”
There is another question we need to ask:
“Do I realise how much God loves me?”
Because the more deeply we know and believe his love, the more freely we can love him and love others.
Lord, help me to know and believe your love. Root me and ground me in the love of Christ. Let me comprehend its breadth, length, depth and height. Take me beyond simply knowing that you love me into actually receiving your love. Let the reality of your love become so deep within me that love begins to overflow from my life.
He who is loved much and realises how much he is loved, loves much.
