CELEBRATING LOVE
Jeremiah 31:3 KJV
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3 is a cornerstone of Old Testament theology that anticipates the New Covenant. It presents a God who is not merely reactive to human behavior but is the sovereign initiator of relationship.
Here are two provocative and challenging truths derived from this text:
- The Scandal of Pre-Temporal Love (“I have loved thee with an everlasting love”)
This truth is provocative because it disrupts the human economic model of love, which is almost always transactional (i.e., we are loved because we are lovely, useful, or good).
- The Challenge: You are not the initiator of your relationship with God. God set His affection on His people before they were born, before they performed any good works, and—most scandalously—with full foreknowledge of their future failures.
- The Theological Implication: If God’s love for you began in eternity past, it was not sparked by your merit; therefore, it cannot be extinguished by your demerit. This challenges the believer to stop trying to “earn” a status that was granted before they existed.
- The Necessity of Divine Intervention (“Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee”)
This truth is provocative because it confronts the idol of human autonomy. The Hebrew word for “drawn” (mashak) implies that without this pulling force, the object would not move.
- The Challenge: We naturally flatter ourselves that we “chose” God. Jeremiah insists that we were spiritually inert or resistant until God’s lovingkindness exerted a gravitational pull on our souls.
- The Theological Implication: Salvation and restoration are 100% God’s work. He does not wait for us to return; He extends “lovingkindness” (hesed—covenant loyalty) as a tether to pull us out of our exile. The challenge here is to admit our helplessness: we did not find the path; we were dragged onto it by grace.
Deep Dive Video
… The ONLY Love That Never Fails | Jeremiah 31:3 Explained …
This video offers a pastoral breakdown of the “everlasting” nature of God’s love, explaining how it remains constant through failures and fears.
