Why Philo Christi?

I had to chuckle.  When I told my wife earlier today that I wanted to start a blog, her answer was very short, and very funny!  She only had one word: "Why?"

Well, let me start with the name of this blog: Philo Christi.  Philo Christi means the love of Christ. It's supposed to cut both ways:  The love of Christ for us, but also our love for Him.  Loving Christ is not a concept that has always been easy for me to understand.  What does it mean to love Christ, and how do I experience His love for me?

I guess there are three basic questions to answer:

Does Jesus love me?

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."

What an awesome truth, in so few words.  But where does the Bible tell me about this love?  I know that John 3:16 tells me about the love of God for the world, but is Jesus really participating here, or was he the unfortunate scapegoat who had to suffer on my behalf?  That's not the picture that I have in my mind about the Jesus of the New Testament - neither in His dealings with people while on earth, nor in what the rest of the New Testament tells us about Him.  In essence, He loves enough to have created me, yet not to leave me to my own devices.  He died for me, saved me, sustains me, as well as guarantees my hope of glory - and that's a pretty big deal!

Don't take my word for it though - let's see what the Bible says about this:

• John 1:3 says that He made everything, and that nothing was made without Him.  That includes me!  Now unless I should think that he created me without purpose, just because He had nothing better to do one evening  thirty-something years ago, that already means a lot. Think of it:  The God of the universe created me (and you!) for a purpose.  We're here for a reason.  We were made with a plan.  My life and yours was carefully considered, it matters - I matter to Jesus.  Eph 1:3,4 tells us something about the forethought He had in creating us.  No human being (born, unborn, young or old) can ever be called an accident.   That sounds like love to me.
• He went through unimaginable suffering to create a way for me to be saved.  What a great God!  Not only is He just, but also merciful.  Not only merciful, but also empathetic and compassionate.  He knows I need rescuing, and became the very instrument of my salvation.  I wasn't saved from God, but rather for Him and through Him! That too, sounds like love to me!
• There's more! Not only do I live because of Him, but I also live for Him and through Him.(Acts 17:28).  This means that He does not only guarantee my future, but He also guarantees my present. What does it mean for someone to look after me right now? It means that He is concerned with my daily well being.  My comings and goings are in His mind. Like a doting parent who loves to watch her child at play, Jesus sustains my life, and cares for me every minute of the day.  He's the one who says that the hairs on my head are numbered (Mathew 10:20).  That definitely sounds like love to me!

How do I go about experiencing this love?
God's love is often portrayed as something that's out there - something outside of me, like His omniscience, or His omnipotence, or something like that. Yet I think that the very nature of love makes it more than a "mere" attribute of God.  To say that my dog is white with black spots is not the same as to say that she is loving.  To say that God is loving (or in fact that God is love), implies something about my expectation when I encounter Him in my life.

I have an acute desire to experience the love of Jesus personally - I do not only want to know about Him, I also want to know Him!  Now do not get me wrong:  I don't think it's possible to know someone without knowing about them, and yet there's more to knowing someone than possessing a collection of facts about them.  I have personally found that there are three keys to growing in this experience of His personal love for me:

• Before I can experience His love, I have to admit that the abundance of grace I experience comes directly from Him. This is the first key to experiencing His love.  It's simply a natural response to feel loved when you are showered with love!  You have to recognise the author and giver of the love poured out over you before you can properly respond!  Stop trying to explain away His loving kindness as good luck and start giving Him the honour that becomes Him for showering you with grace.
• Secondly, I think its also important to understand that loving Jesus is not only an emotional experience.  It is the result of learning something about Him.  John Piper says it well:  "One key is to realize that the experience is not like hypnosis or electric shock or drug-induced hallucinations or shivers at a good tune. Rather it is mediated through knowledge. It is not the same as knowledge. But it comes through knowledge. Or to say it another way, this experience of the love of God is the work of the Spirit giving unspeakable joy in response to the mind's perception of the demonstration of that love in Jesus Christ". 
• The last key is spending time with Him. The more I realise His care for me, the more I learn about His purposes for me, the more I desire to spend time in His word, and worship Him in prayer.  This is probably the most important key to experiencing God that any believer could grasp. 

Experiencing His love starts then, with recognising that He is the source of goodness in my life. It continues with learning more about Him, and it blossoms with each moment that I spend with Him in devotion.

How do I love Him back?

I should share something with you that is happening as I write this: I am experiencing an upwelling of devotion, of affection as I think about just exactly how much Jesus cares for me.  It's more than just a feeling of gratefulness for things received - its also a feeling of togetherness, of realness.

The Bible is pretty clear about loving Jesus.  He said in Matthew 12:47 that those who do the will of his Father in heaven are his family.  When asked by the Pharisees what the most important commandment was, Jesus simply said to Love God, and to love our neighbor (Mark 12:29-31).  Later on, Jesus says that those who love Him, follow His commandments (John 14:15). (This is not about a guilt trip.  The wonderful thing about living this new life is that, just like the faith of Romans 1 which is required to enter into a relationship with God, 1 Cor 10:13 tells us that God also provides the way to overcome sin and temptation)

I love Jesus.  This love is expressed in two ways:  Firstly, and foremostly, it is a natural response to what He did and still does by showering me with saving and sustaining grace.  When I meditate on that, my soul rejoices in Him, and my heart responds in love and affection. Secondly, my love for Jesus is expressed in a desire to serve Him with my life.  

That is what the concept of the Love of Chirst (Philo Christi) means to me. To be loved, is to love back.