How many times have you actually thought about your name? Why is it connected to you as a person? Why do you respond to that particular sequence of sounds? Does your name have meaning, or is it a word which just rolled off of your parents tongues just right and they decided to call you that? Names have great meaning in some places of the world. I think we have lost that element in North American culture and are truly missing out on something good.
God is referred to by many names throughout scripture. For example: Elohim (Creator mighty and strong), El Shaddai (many breasted one), Jehovah Jireh (The Lord will provide), Yahweh Rapha (The Lord who heals), among many others. All of these many names describe something that God does, or perhaps a part of His character, but fall rather short in telling us who He really is. In the third chapter of Exodus, Moses is asking God for His name so that he might tell the Israelites who had sent him to deliver them from Egypt. God gives him the most mysterious and yet His most complete name.
“I Am Who I AM”.
What kind of a name is that? Seems kind of vague at first glance until you realize the implication of this name.
In John 8:12, Jesus claims to be the “light of the world”. What does light have to do with it? It’s like this: No one can actually see light. It is because of light that we can see what is around us. Sight has no meaning outside of the context of light. If there is no light, you simply cannot see anything. You may as well not even have eyes.
When God announces Himself as “I AM”, He is saying not so much that He exists, but rather, that He IS existence. Existence has no meaning outside of the context of God.
In John 8:56-59, Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”
Jesus claims to be God. He claims to be existence. The apostle Paul confirms this and expands on the astounding implications of this amazing claim. Colossians 1:16-20. “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
All things exist specifically in the Christ of the God-head and He has reconciled all things to Himself, making peace from the worst imaginable display of human violence? What kind of God is this? What does this say of His essence? All of the names of God describe different characteristics which God has, but fall short of describing the most important thing. His essence. The very thing which defines who He is and what drives everything He does.
And then John comes out and says it in 1John 4:8. God is love. Not “God loves”, as in just another characteristic. God IS LOVE. This is His very essence.
What does “love” mean though? The word “love” has, like our own names, become all but meaningless. The language the New Testament was written in, Koine Greek has three words with different meanings which have all been sloppily rendered into the one english word “love”.
-Eros: Means to desire for sensual fulfillment.
-Phileo: To be a friend, to have affection for or personal attachment to. To feel sentimental towards.
-Agape: (And this is the word from which we get “God is love”). This is unconditional, other thinking, self emptying love. The kind of action where you put someone else’s needs, desires and well being ahead of your own, no matter how nice or nasty that person is.
The implications of this are HUGE! This is God’s very essence! This is the essence of existence Himself! And all that exists needs to be seen within the context of the One who is existence, who is love. This changes the way you see God. This changes the way you read the Bible. This changes the way you live!
All that exists was created to exist within the flow of Agape love. Which explains the pain, the hurt, the brokenness we see in the world. If I use a fine china teacup to drive a 3.5” spike into a 2X4, I’m going to end up with a broken teacup. It simply was not designed to be a hammer anymore than we were designed to live independently of God’s flow of love. If you live in such a way that you resist God’s love to you, or you withhold that love to others around you, there will be brokenness, there will be sickness. The Bible calls this sin. When we understand and embrace the reality that the One who is existence is love, there is no more fear, no more selfish pride, no more hatred, no more greed as there is no more scarcity. Being alive just became more meaningful. Let’s surrender to to the One who is existence, who is love. Freely receiving His love and passing it on to everyone else around us. This is how we were designed to live. This is the only way we can find healing and be truly alive!