By Elizabeth Yeamans Simrell
If God is I AM and Jesus is his Son and the very Word of God, we should be careful when we say, “I am…,” because the next word we use matters! Is it coincidence that the verb “to be” is conjugated in the first person singular as “I am” or the equivalent in any language (all the languages I can think of)? We were made in God’s image and human language even reflects this. God is I AM and we refer to ourselves individually with “I am….” This strikes me as significant.
So, if God is LOVE, then I AM is LOVE. And if we are made in his image, likewise, when we say, “I am…,” we should be able to finish the sentence with “love.” We should become so much like Christ that we become love also.
Scripture describes love this way: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the NIV, Life Application Bible).
To be more like Christ and to love as he loves us, we need to know his nature and to know who he is. What would we say if Jesus asked us, as he asked his Disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”
When we meet Christ face to face, will he see himself when he looks in our eyes? Will he see LOVE? Will he see I AM?
