A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

1 Corinthians 13:8, “Love never fails.” During the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England in the 17th century, a soldier had been sentenced to die for treason. His fiancé pleaded with Cromwell to spare his life, but the great ruler refused. The young soldier was to be executed when the curfew bell sounded, but when the bell-ringer pulled the rope, there was no sound. The girl had climbed into the bell tower and had wrapped her body around the clapper, thus preventing the bell from sounding. Although she was battered and her body bruised, she managed to climb down. When she stood before Cromwell and told him what she had done, he immediately commuted the soldier’s sentence. Listen, friend, love never fails. In fact, as Paul would also write in 1 Corinthians 13:7, love “bears all things.” So what would you do to demonstrate your love for someone? As the young lady in our story today, would you tie yourself to the clapper of a large bell and endanger your life for the one you love? What extremes would you go to for people who—were your enemies? Ah, it brings a different light to the subject, doesn’t it? One could understand sacrificing ones self for someone they deeply loved and loved them in return, but what about sacrificing yourself for those who despised you? Yet God did that for us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He gave His Son to be beaten, spat upon, publicly humiliated, stripped bare and hung on a Roman cross to die for a world that had rejected Him and was at enmity against Him. It is one thing to be willing to die for your loved ones, but it’s another matter to be willing to die for your enemies. Yet Jesus Christ did that, to forever appease the just nature of a holy God and reconcile us back to right standing before Him. How could God have permitted that? Because God does not love us based on who we are—but based on who He is—for He is love. With His powerful example to lead us, we can accordingly share this same unfeigned love to all with whom we encounter, during this and each new day.