A World Of Love

By: David Feddes

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:8,10

August 20th, 2000

You’ve probably heard that you can’t take it with you when you die. That’s true of many things, but it’s not true of everything. There’s one thing in this life that you can take with you into the world beyond death. Not only can you take it with you, but it will even improve and grow better than ever.


What can you take with you? Well, you can’t take money, food, clothes, computers, cars, or houses. You can’t take diplomas, honors, awards, or promotions. You can’t take church buildings, religious positions, or even special spiritual abilities into the world beyond this one. But you can take the greatest thing of all, the thing that never fails or fades, the thing that remains when so much else passes away. The greatest thing in this life, and in the life to come, is love.


If God’s kind of love lives in your heart, you may be sure of treasure in heaven. And the greater this love grows, the greater your treasure will be. Already now love is worth more than anything else you have on earth, and it will be worth even more when you get to heaven. The love of your heart is the only treasure you can take with you to heaven, the only treasure that will never decay or be taken away.


How do we know that love is the supreme reality of the new creation? Well, the Bible says the Lord Jesus will reign until he crushes all enemies. Then he will present his redeemed creation to his Father, “so that God may be all in all“ (1 Corinthians 15:28). What is a world where God is all in all? It is a world of love, because “God is love“ (1 John 4:16).


Because heaven is a world of love, there is no place in it for people who have nothing of God’s kind of love in their hearts. The only place for hearts without the love of God is hell without the love of God. Without love you are nothing in this life, and you will have nothing but misery in your final future.


Love is what gives anything else on earth its value, and love is what lasts when everything else is left behind. Without love, material things are useless. Without love, even religious abilities and achievements are empty. Even if we could speak the language of angels, even if we could see the future and understand the most mysterious ideas, even if we were willing to die for what we believe, these things would be worthless without love. Such things can be valuable if they are used in love to do certain things for God’s cause, but when perfection comes, everything temporary and incomplete passes away. Many spiritual gifts that now can be useful simply won’t be needed in the ultimate future.


And what will be left? Love. “Love never fails,“ says the Bible in 1 Corinthians 13. It is the “most excellent“ thing, the “greatest“ thing, the thing that makes everything else worthwhile. It is the thing that lasts forever and stands at the very center of God’s new creation. Heaven is a world of love, of perfect harmony among animals, people, angels, and God himself.


Animals


Bible prophecy shows that after the Lord Jesus has judged and destroyed the wicked and set all things right, the new creation will be a world of love——even for animals.


The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6—9).


Just think of it: a world so completely ruled by love that babies can play with cobras; a place where lions, leopards, and wolves live in friendship and harmony with cows, calves, and lambs.


Animal love won’t be the best thing about heaven, but it will be a very good thing. If you have a faithful dog or a friendly cat, or if you’ve worked with a strong, responsive horse, you know the bond that can exist between animal and master. If you’ve seen a cow nuzzling its calf, or bear cubs playing, you sense the affection animals can have for each other. Animals don’t have the intelligence or the spiritual capacity of humans, and animal love is not the same as the love between humans, but it is still something beautiful. Someday animals will frolic and lie down with all types of creatures, not just their own kind. The Bible leads us to expect that in the new creation there will be plenty of animals but no animal bloodshed.


Killing among animals is not as tragic as killing among humans, but it is not ideal. Animal bloodshed will not be part of the future paradise, just as it was not part of the original paradise. Back in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and the animals under their care lived in harmony with each other and ate vegetables and fruit (Genesis 1:29—30). That was God’s original design. But after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, a curse afflicted the whole creation. No longer did people live in perfect harmony with animals. No longer did the animals live at peace with each other. In a world cursed with sin and death, animals began hating and fearing people and killing and eating one another.


Although human sin was to blame for bringing this trouble on animals, we humans remain higher and more important to God than the animals. According to the Bible, God decided to protect people from most animal attacks by making animals afraid of humans, and God also gave people permission to use animals for food (Genesis 9:2—3). Animal rights activists are mistaken if they make animals equal to people or say it’s evil to use animal products for food or clothing. God says we may do so in this period between the original paradise and the new creation.


But God also makes it plain that those who know the Lord must not inflict needless pain on animals but must care for them. The Bible says that God is “loving toward all he has made“ (Psalm 145:17), so if you have God’s kind of love in your heart, you will express at least something of the Creator’s love for his creatures. The Bible says, “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal“ (Proverbs 12:10). Livestock and pets must be fed and treated well. We must appreciate wildlife and avoid needless damage to them and their environment. You don’t have to be a New Age nature worshiper in order to love God’s creatures. You don’t have to be a tree—hugging environmental extremist to be eager for the new world of love where animals will not be killed by people or by each other, where humans and animals are so fully in tune with God’s life and love that all live in peace.


In thinking about heaven as a world of love, why have I focused on animal love first? Not because it’s most important, but in order to move from lesser to greater. Jesus himself appeals from lesser to greater when he says, “How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!“ (Matthew 12:11). If it’s great that lambs and lions will lie down together, it’s far greater that people of all nations will be united in loving fellowship with each other, with the holy angels, and with the living God.


People


Bible prophecy describes a world where peace and love will flourish among people as the Lord reigns in the new Jerusalem. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.


(Micah 4:2—4)


God’s world of love is a world without war, without crime, without danger, without arguing, a world of peace and security.


The Lord says, “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there“ (Zechariah 8:4—5). Now, when the Lord says this, he’s not necessarily describing what age we’ll be in his new creation. He’s making it clear that there won’t be anything to ruin the restfulness of retirement, just relaxing and rejoicing in each other’s company. There won’t be anything to stifle the playfulness of recreation, just people having all—out fun together with nothing to spoil it. Whatever age we might be, there won’t be any generation gap, just warm bonds of love.


In the world of love, people will be perfectly loveable. The Bible says, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life“ (Revelation 21:27). Those who have nothing of God’s life and love in their hearts won’t make it into heaven, and those who do have the life and love of Christ will be purified of anything unworthy. In this life even the best, most loveable Christians do some things and have some character traits that aren’t very lovely. We all have something about us that bugs the people who know us. But in the new creation, there will be nothing wrong with anyone. As the saying goes, “What’s not to love?“


Everyone will be perfectly loveable, and everyone will be perfectly loving. Each person who is truly born again in Christ has already been given a spark of God’s life and love, and in the world to come, that spark will be a brilliant flame, a blaze of affection for each of God’s children. Each heart will be so full of God’s Holy Spirit, so flooded by divine love, that we will be able to love with a fullness and power that goes beyond any love we ever had in this life.


There’s an old saying, “Variety is the spice of life.“ It could also be said, “Variety is the spice of love.“ According to the Bible, in heaven we will love and be loved by people from every nation and racial background. We will love and be loved by people from different centuries. We will love and be loved by the great heroes of the Bible, and enjoy a fellowship of love with many hidden heroes who didn’t get much notice in this world but are some of God’s greatest treasures. Of course, we will also love and be loved by those Christian family members and friends with whom we had the closest fellowship here on earth, and even those bonds of love will be closer than we ever enjoyed before.


Among our greatest blessings in the world of love are the blessings that God will give to people besides us. In our present sinful condition, we tend to envy others who are blessed. We’re not happy for them because we wish we could have what they have. But in the world of love, we will be content with God’s gifts to us, and we will rejoice in all that he gives to others, even if they receive greater honors and rewards than we do. In this world, one of the few relationships where we might rejoice in someone surpassing us is when our own children do so. Good parents don’t resent their children’s success; we rejoice in it because we love them. But we have a hard time rejoicing in the success of most other people, because we don’t love them as much. In heaven that will change. We will love every person in heaven more than we love even our own children right now, and so we will be glad in whatever makes others glad.


There will certainly be plenty to be glad about. God will be lavishing so much blessing and happiness on each of us that it will surpass our capacity to hold it all, and his blessing on others whom we love will add to our feast of happiness. In the writings of Jonathan Edwards, there is a marvelous chapter titled, “Heaven, a World of Love.“ “The prosperity of the beloved is,“ writes Edwards, “the food of love, and therefore the greater that prosperity, the more richly is love feasted.“ In heaven, the happier other people are, the happier you will be; and the happier you are, the happier they will be. There will be no envy, no boasting, just ever—increasing joy and love.


Angels


Another thing to look forward to in the world of love is the love of angels. That’s not something we know very well here on earth. We may have ties of some sort to a pet, and stronger ties to some people we know, but we have little or no direct ties with angels. However, when we become citizens of the heavenly city, says the Bible, we “come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly“ (Hebrews 12:22).


Biblical prophecy pictures ten thousand times ten thousand angels in heaven. If we take the number literally, that’s one hundred million, and the number may be even large, since ten thousand times ten thousand may symbolize a number beyond counting. Scripture portrays this vast host of angels gathered before God’s throne, joined by countless people and creatures of every kind (Revelation 5:11—13; 7:9—11).


Angels already love God’s people more than we know. According to Jesus, even the smallest and least important children are zealously cared for by the mightiest angels who have direct access to God the Father (Matthew 18:10). When even one sinner repents and finds new life in the Lord, says Jesus, “there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God“ (Luke 15:10).


Angels and their love for us are hidden from our senses now, but in the new creation, they will not be hidden. We will know more fully what it is like to be loved by angels, and we will have the joy of loving them. We can meet and thank angels who helped us in this life, and we can enjoy their company forever.


Angels are so strong and splendid that if we saw them now, we would be tempted to bow down and worship them (Revelation 22:8). But in the world of love, angels will not overwhelm us. They will love us, and we will love them.


If angels were not so pure and did not love us so much, they might be tempted to envy us. God has done things for humanity and promised privileges that surpass even his goodness to the angels. The Son of God never became an angel, but he did become a human. “It is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come“ (Hebrews 2:5). In the new creation, Christ will reign, and his people will reign with him (Revelation 22:5). The Bible hints that we will have authority even over angels (1 Corinthians 6:3).


Are angels upset or envious of people being promoted above them? No, they are thrilled. Angels don’t lose when humanity gains. Their supreme delight is Christ, so their delight grows with every human who is remade to be like Christ. They rejoice at God’s wisdom and generosity in making small, sinful humanity so grand and glorious. Their attitude might be somewhat like that of a superb teacher who spends long years helping a student until the student surpasses the teacher in amazing ways. The angels won’t resent it if humanity rises to stunning heights. In fact, that is the very thing angels have been working to bring about. In the circle of joy around God’s throne, angels become happier and happier with every human in the Lord’s royal family who receives a crown.


As the angels rejoice in us, we will rejoice in them. We won’t look down on them or feel superior. We will simply be glad to be human, and they will be glad to be angels. Each one, whether angel or human, will rejoice to have our own place and identity in that perfect world of love. Those who are made greatest in love will also be greatest in humility. After all, the greater we are in heaven, the better we will know the God who is infinitely greater than all the saints and angels combined. Knowing such a magnificent God so well, we won’t be capable of pride or boasting. We will simply delight in the Lord and in his glory which shines in various ways in various creatures, whether animals or humans or angels.


God


In the perfect world of love, the most loving and most loveable one of all is the living God. When the Bible says, “God is love,“ we should understand that love is not only what God does but who God is. Before there were any angels, any people, any animals, before there was any created thing at all, there was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, joined in a love so vast and profound that Father, Son, and Spirit are one God. This Holy Trinity created the angelic realm and the earthly realm, and devised a plan to save and exalt sinful people and the fallen creation. God did this in order to pour out an overabundance of divine love on other beings, so that those beings might share in the life and love of God himself. Every bit of genuine love in the universe originates in God, and all the love of every creature is not even a fraction of the immeasurable wellspring of love that is in God.


God is love. Because God is infinite, he must be an infinite fountain of love. Because God is all—sufficient, he must be a full, overflowing, inexhaustible fountain of love. Because he is unchangeable and eternal, God is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love. As Jonathan Edwards put it, God is the one “from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds… There, in heaven, this infinite fountain of love——this eternal Three in One——is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it, as it flows forever. There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain for ever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love!“


God the Father gave his Son to die for us and his Holy Spirit to live in us. If we consider the infinite love that unites Father, Son, and Spirit, then we can only marvel that God would love us enough to give the Son and the Spirit to us. In heaven we will know more fully the love of God in Christ, and we will be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. We will be caught up into a love that surpasses all words or thought. We will love God with our whole being. And when we love animals, people, and angels, we will love them for God’s sake, seeing each as another reason to adore the supremely lovable and loving God.


Until Then


Meanwhile, what about right now? What difference does it make to know that God is love and that his new creation is a world of love? It means that you need the living love of God in your heart already in this world. You must be alive with his love, or you will never enter God’s kingdom.


Put your faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Trust in the Lord’s great love. Ask him to fill you with a love that reflects his. Then live a life of love. Value animals for the sake of their Creator. Treasure people who were created in God’s image and are being remade in the likeness of Christ. Be grateful for the help of angels and look forward to seeing them someday. Above all, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.


Use all your treasure and all your talents in the service of love. Jesus says, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings“ (Luke 16:9). If you have God’s love growing in you, if you keep investing that love in God and in people around you, then you can indeed take it with you into God’s new creation, the perfect world of love.

About the Author

David Feddes

Dr. David Feddes is pastor of Family of Faith Church and provost of Christian Leaders Institute, which supports mentor-based ministry training through online courses. David is also adjunct missiologist for Crossroad Bible Institute, which provides biblical distance education to more than 40,000 people in prison. Previously he served as broadcast minister for the Back to God radio program, reaching people in more than fifty countries. David earned his Ph.D. in intercultural studies from Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL and is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Wendy, have nine children (one in heaven).

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