2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
It is one thing to tell the faithful that they should love one another, but that doesn’t guarantee that we will understand what it means. That is why God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, when we read the Scriptures, pray, understand our circumstances, and interact in our congregations. One truth that was revealed to me while writing the previous series of devotions on PS 119 was the joy the Psalmist experienced in God’s word. I hope I’m not acting with lack of humility if I say that I share that same joy from it. The bottom line is that we are not equipped to really understand the meaning of love, as God would have us know it, without the Holy Spirit to teach us.
God, through Paul, teaches us that we have duties toward one another. We can’t go through our lives caring only about ourselves and our own individual agendas and live a holy life. There are people that do that, and they never find any peace or happiness in their lives. God makes it clear from the point of view of His Law what “Love your neighbor as you love yourself means in RO 13: 8-10 [and GA 5:14]. “Be under obligation to no one-the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else’-all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ If you love someone, you will never do him wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.” Paul’s message went on in this passage to remind us of the urgency of making whatever changes are necessary in our lives to conform to the standard God is setting for us. RO 13: 11-12, “You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapon for fighting in the light.” There can be little equivocation as to what this means when one reads RO 13: 13-14, “Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day-no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.”
One of the most beautiful passages in the Scriptures is 1 COR 13: 2, 4-8a. “I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have faith needed to move mountains-but if I have no love, I am nothing…Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but it happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and it’s faith, hope and patience never fail. Love is eternal.” Nothing I could ever say about love can top that. That is the kind of love that Christ modeled for us. Sadly, we have a hard time living up to those ideals all of the time, because of our sinful natures. Paul’s prayer encased in his epistle to the Ephesians is his heartfelt expression of his understanding of this wonderful example of the Son’s love. EPH 3: 14-20, “For this reason [that we benefit from our suffering] I fall on my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its true name. I ask God from the wealth of His glory to give you power through His Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, and I pray that Christ will make His home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God’s people may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep is Christ’s love. Yes, may you come to know His love-although it can never be fully known-and so be completely filled with the very nature of God. To Him Who by means of His power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or even think of; to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever! Amen.”
This is so very important to us; that I know. JN 14:21, “Whoever accepts My commandments and obeys them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him.” In other words, when we obey God, we show Him the depth of our love for Him. In Henry Blackaby’s words, “We experience God when we obey Him.” When we obey God, we enable Him to accomplish His work through us. Our lives are greatly blessed by that, but there is even more. When God’s work gets accomplished, then the devil’s agenda doesn’t get done. If what I believe is true, then many times there are far-reaching ramifications from what we do that is good. People we may not even know might be benefited from the love we demonstrate. Because of the limitations of our perception, we can’t expect to see God’s perspective on what He asks us to do. We have to rely on our knowledge of His righteousness and our faith in Him to know how important our obedience in loving Him and loving one another is. God’s revelation of Himself, His ways, and His secrets to us are wonderful rewards that we have available to us when we obey His command to love one another as He loves us and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
PRAYER: O Lord, through the example of love that You and Your Son set for us, You reveal to us a unique beauty that we can have in our lives by following it. Because You love us and understand the limitations we have on our perspective, You patiently explain to us what You mean by love in the Scriptures and in communicating with us in prayer. You grant us joy through Your word, as You did the Psalmist who wrote PS 119. A code of behavior is provided in the Scriptures that will allow us to experience what love can mean in our lives and how our lives can be made better by it. Because of Your love for us, You ask writers like Paul to urge us to action in view of the shortness of time before You call us home. You remind us of how to love each other in the same mode that Christ loves us. In fact, You remind us of the depth of the Son’s love, knowing it’s importance to us even if we can’t understand it fully. The quintessential demonstration of love for us is Your willingness to reveal Yourself, Your ways, and Your secrets to those of us who believe. No words of praise from human lips are sufficient for what You deserve. Even so, we dedicate ourselves to following the example set for us of love and offer You our utmost devotion. In Christ’s name, amen.
Hallelujah! We need never go a day in our lives feeling unloved, as long as we endure in our faith, trust God, and obey Him. Take joy in His words and know that even if He asks us to do things the hard, often unpopular way, it is out of His love for us and in our best interests. Peter and I also send you our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn