First Loved: A Message for Biblical Studies, Theology, and Christian Ministry Majors

First Loved.

A Message for Biblical Studies, Theology, and Christian Ministry Majors

Academic Chapel

September 5, 2025

Kelly D. Liebengood, Ph.D.

Dean, School of Theology and Vocation

Scripture Reading

“Beloved,...”  (Pet 2:11; 4:12; 2 Pet 3:1, 8, 14, 3:17; 1 John 2:7; 3:2, 21; 4:1, 7, 11; Jude 1, 3, 17, 20; see also Heb 6;9; Eph 1:6; 5:1; Col 3:2; 2 Thess 2:13.)

Proclamation 

There’s a word in the New Testament that is too often treated as a throwaway, a pleasantry that serves to fill the awkward space as the author transitions from one idea to another. The word, as you may have guessed from our Scripture reading, is beloved. 

The word is particularly prominent in key rhetorical moments in the Catholic Epistles (James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude; see references in note 1). And at the center of the Catholic Epistles is a reminder that Jesus is the beloved, the one who has always been loved, and who in turn loves as an extension of his belovedness (2 Pet 1:16-21). We learn about this eternal life of belovedness in his baptism and in his transfiguration, when the Father says “This is My Son, the Beloved. I take great delight in him (e.g., Mk 1:11)”  (Translation mine. We also learn about the belovedness of Jesus in John 17, especially John 17:24-26.)

Not so subtly, the Catholic Epistles--as well as other places in the New Testament--remind us that we are what Jesus is; or perhaps better said, that Jesus makes us to be what he is; that to be found “in Christ” is to be beloved as well:

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are...Beloved, we are God's children....” (1 John 3:1, 2)

Belovedness is not an accomplishment, it’s not something that we achieve; there is no such thing as self-made belovedness. Belovedness is a gift--to be received; a reality to be lived under, accepted and embraced. It is beauty to be attended to.

Here’s what I want you to grapple with and ultimately to delight in as the foundation of all your learning and doing: before we are anything else (including sinners), we are beloved. We are first loved. “Love is our identity and our calling, for we are children of Love. Created from love, of love, and for love, our existence makes no sense apart from Divine love.” (Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself, 47)

To live out of any other identity is to live an allusion; to live out of any other identity is to live against the grain of reality—and it will fail. But love never fails. 

But, will we receive this gift? Will we live with the grain of this most foundational aspect of reality?  Do we have the courage to see ourselves as God sees us? The lifelong challenge of the Christian life, especially the life of a Christian minister, is to have the courage and humility to believe this about ourselves, to receive God’s love, and then to move out into the world with the same love for others. What is more,  in our digital age of distraction, do we have the patience and focus to be attentive to God’s delightful gaze of us amidst all the other voices that tell us otherwise? 

What do you imagine God says to himself when he sees you? When you “walk into the room,” what is God thinking, feeling, saying to Himself about you? 

Scripture and the history of Christian thought contend that growth begins not so much by doing all the imperatives of the Christian life (as important as that is!)—it doesn’t come by performance or perfection—but rather by paying more careful attention to God's knowing of us, to God's bestowal of favor upon us; that is, we grow by looking at, by noticing, and by receiving God’s looking at us.

Peter puts it like this:

“Beloved...be diligent to be found in/by him...grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet 3:14, 18)

 [I understand “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” to be a subjective genitive, which means that, grammatically, Jesus is the one doing the “gracing” (that is, bestowing of favor) and “knowing” of us.]  

As we gather for a new academic year, let’s be a community of beloveds that remind one another of our true story and identity.  

Benediction

The LORD bless you

    and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.

Num 6:24-26