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Jesus didn't come to keep our worlds right side up. It is not his mission to confirm us in our sin or reinforce our lacking conceptions of love.

Quite the contrary.

He came to turn our worlds upside down. Better yet, to get the right side back up. And in so doing, Jesus demonstrates for us what is at the core of what it means to love and be loved — the universal human need for a full and endless experience of the glory of God.

And so Jesus and the apostle John conspire in John chapter 11 to reorient our notion of love. When his dearly loved friend Lazarus dies, Jesus doesn't hurry to the rescue, but stays two days longer where he is. By the time he reaches the family, Lazarus has been dead four days. The point, Jesus says, is the glory of God, "so that the Son of God may be glorified" (John 11:4). 

Love means giving Lazarus and his sisters what will bring them the fullest and longest joy: a revelation to their souls of the glory of God. Jesus loves them in enabling their hearts to see and admire and marvel at and savor the glory of God in him.

In this we learn that love, at its core, is doing whatever you have to do to help others see and treasure the glory of God as their supreme joy.


Stream or download this week's sermon, This Illness Is for the Glory of God.

Topic: The Love of God  

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Twin Cities, and works as executive pastoral assistant to John Piper. He and his wife Megan have twin sons (Carson and Coleman) and live in Minneapolis. David is co-editor (with John Piper) of Thinking, Loving, Doing, most recently, and Finish the Mission, forthcoming. Yep, he plays rec softball and went yard in his last game.