I’d like to take a moment and share an observation we see happen a lot in the Church. People often hear the command, “Pursue love” – love your neighbor, love one another, love your enemies, etc. and most of us respond the same way: take the biblical command and try to muster up enough willpower through disciplined effort to become more loving to people. But time and again we fail to succeed in fulfilling this command.
The problem? We cannot actually obey this command through willpower and disciplined effort.
At the (Re)Form Seminar this past summer, Eden Project’s Chuck Gschwend shared a paradigm shift that a lot of us need to hear: We’re loved into loving.
He said it plainly: “You have to receive love in order to have any kind of love to give.”
This isn’t just nice theology. It’s the order of priority Scripture gives us.
1 John 4:19 says “We love because he first loved us.” Ephesians says “forgive as you’ve been forgiven” and “love as you’ve been loved.”
You can’t become a loving person through willpower and effort. You become a loving person by being loved by God and allowing his love to transform you.
As Chuck shared with us: “We’re not changed by the mere fact that God loves you. That fact has been true since eternity past. You’re changed when you learn to vulnerably surrender to love and actually receive it.”
The paradigm shift is this: To pursue love – to become a loving person – you first have to arrange your life to receive love from God.
If you want to watch Chuck’s full talk (about 30 minutes), you can find it here: Full Video
Or if you want to watch all three sessions from the 2025 (Re)form Seminar, here’s the full playlist:
(Re)Form Seminar 2025 Video Playlist
The theory of how we’re changed really can be summarized in these words: We’re loved into loving.
So let God love you, and if you are struggling to do that, join us on a Journey Home Retreat, or visit one of our weekly chapters.
