This is a part of the sermon my pastor preached last Sunday ....
"She said to the people back in her village: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did” (John 4:29). She didn't say, “Well, I admitted a few sins, some little ones, to see how he’d react.” No, he told her everything she’d ever done, and he still loved her. So she wasn't afraid of those people any more. She felt loved and confident and free. That was the living water flowing out of her heart."
Isn't that what we all want out of love, whether professing to believe in Christ or not, I believe as humans we all wish to be known. The very thought of that reality sparks a fire of curiosity, longing, and fear in my heart. If you are anything like me or the Samaritan woman in John 4, you spend most of your days concealing who you are at the deepest level. At the end of the day what does that get me? Approval? Success? I don't want those things, I want to love and be loved with a great authenticity, and whether within family, friendships, a relationship, I have recognized that this love can only be sprung from Christ. Though Jesus knows all I have ever done, He still invites me to forsake my known ways of sin and receive the gift that will produce a spring of life within me. Through Christ's death, I share in the holiness of God, our perfect creator who knows no sin. In my sin; He loved me, and because of that no matter how bashful my human heart may be; I am transformed to become confident and free; first in Christ and then with others on this Earth. What a gift.
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” - Tim Keller
Ephesians 3:19 "and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
-Steph
Thanks!