Galatians 5:6 says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any strength, but faith working through love”. We cannot even exercise faith for living if we are not living the love life. We need to be walking in love just as Jesus did, in order to be safe from our enemy, and to be pleasing to God.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Love is unselfish and gives; the opposite is selfish and is not love. That is the quickest description I can think of.
John 15:9 says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. Jesus states that disciples must remain in His love. He is not speaking of love produced by human effort, but the actual divine love of Christ produced through the Holy Spirit. When Christ comes into a believer’s life, He brings His love with Him; the same love He enjoys with God the Father. Obedient disciples abide in Christ, and love is essential fruit that they bear.
Love has become such a distorted idea. Among unbelievers, it is almost always a selfish idea. They feel because they have this warm fuzzy feeling that makes them feel good, it is love. Its definition is most often not accurate, even in Christian circles. Love cannot be described at all without a Biblical view, but even many Bible believers still keep an inaccurate view of love.
Some feel that love is how one feels. Some feel that love is unconditional; therefore no matter what a person does it is ok. We are just to forgive and get back into the relationship. So often God wants us out of relationships that are harmful. People often manipulate us with the demand for “love.” Certainly we are to forgive everyone and everything, but forgiveness does not mean permissiveness; it does not mean that we should get back into relationship with someone that is harmful. Sometimes God asks us to have “tough love”. We need to allow God to define boundaries in our lives, otherwise other will control us.
John 15:10 reveals the way to remain or continue in Christ’s love. What condition must we meet to remain or continue in His love? (Note, remember that John 15 has nothing to do with salvation, but Jesus is teaching about spiritual fruit bearing in the believer’s life. John 15:10 says, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.”
John 15:12 says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Many people in the church have, out of good intentions, tried to imitate God’s love. That is impossible! The only way to have God’s love is to have God. Thankfully we do have God. God lives in us; therefore love lives in us.
Why then do we so often act contrary to love if God lives in us? It is because our old nature is trying to come back to life and take over. As we mature in the Lord over the years, love becomes more apparent in our life.
I believe that love comes forth from us as we abide in Him, and spend time with Him in fellowship with His Word, His Spirit and in prayer. I believe that as His presence envelops your life, that you will become more like Him, and love will just happen. If you truly love someone you will want to be around him or her and share your heart with them. This is the way it is with God. When you listen to Him speak His Word to you, when you feel His forgiveness, His peace in the storm, His compassion in your weakness, you fall in love with Him more and more. You want to be around Him more and you just start becoming like Him because that is your real nature.
John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” We cannot love as God loves without abiding in Him.
We need to continue to look into the Word to find those areas that are not like Him so that we may repent.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8a says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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. Love never fails.”
The above Scripture is a wonderful list to keep in your pocket. Whenever you sense that your life is not going this way, confess your sin to God and He will remove whatever is not love. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
According to John 15:11, love produces joy. Look what kind of joy is produced in the obedient believer who abides in Christ’s love? John 15:11 says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Are you having trouble with fear?
Love is the solution. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Whenever we experience fear, we can say to ourselves and to God, “Well I guess I have more to learn about your love; show me and teach me Lord.” Then God would say in response, Romans 5:8-9 which says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!”
John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
God the Father loved Jesus the Son. Jesus loves us (John 15:9), and now we are to live our life showing His love to others. What command is given in John 15:12-13? “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13).
Divine love surpasses any kind of conditional human love
I have read where there are three different kinds of love (actually they are three different words, but they are not really love as God is love). One is Eros, which is the physical expression of love. In marriage this is God’s best; outside of marriage it is perverted into lust. Phileo is brotherly love. This can be best described as my love for you BECAUSE of something good inside of you. There is nothing wrong with this as a matter of fact it is good. However, it depends on something inside of you that attracts me.
The Bible kind of Love, God’s love, is called agape. This is a word that the world did not even have before Jesus came. The closest thing to it is the Old Testament word lovingkindness, which is in Hebrew checed. Checed and Agape indicate an unconditional love. In other words, the one loving you does not look for anything good in you, or lovable in you; they just love you because they are love. They just love you because they ache inside to love you, no matter how bad you are. It is not an act of obedience, it is real, and it becomes emotional; however, it does not start with emotions.
Love is what draws us to God. Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness (love) leads you towards repentance?” I am so glad that when I was dead in sin, a rebel towards God, that His love drew me to Him.
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).
“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (2 John 1:6).
“Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). What sacrifices might you have to make to order to repair a broken relationship and display the fruit of His love?
In Romans 5:5 and Galatians 5:22, we are shown that we have the ability to love as God loves.
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5).
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
We were made in God’s image and in His likeness.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26). Image means having the character of God, and likeness means operating our life the same way God operates His life. How is that? By faith and love.
People who do not have God living in them are not normal. Their manufacturer made them to operate with love and faith, and they are operating in selfishness and in the sense realm without faith. If you had an automobile and the manual said to put unleaded fuel in it, you would do that. But if you put in orange juice instead of unleaded fuel, you would destroy the auto. In the same way, every time we, as Christians do not act in love, we are destroying ourselves.
The person who misses love misses the best that life has to offer. But it is up to us to develop it. We have to make our freedom of choice many times during the course of the day. When someone hurts us, or slanders us, we must act in love.
Giving is one of the results of love.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). When you see someone that is an unselfish giver, you can see love. This not only includes money, but also time. But this universe was created to function on love and giving, so whenever you give, more is returned. God gave His only Son, but He got back billions of sons and daughters and His firstborn Son, Jesus as well.
ISOB Discipleship Training Manual. Larry Chkoreff (WALK) (Love)
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