THE POWER OF GOD'S LOVE

"THE POWER OF GOD'S LOVE" AUDIO BLOG

 
GOD IS LOVE! And he has given us the spirit of love!

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

How many people really understand 'love,' though? I mean, most of us probably, in our earthly understanding of love, at least love our mothers and fathers, and our children and husband, but what is love to God?

Let's first look at John 13:34, wherein Jesus said, "I am giving you a new commandment, that you [a]love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another."

Footnotes: biblegateway.com
(a) John 13:34 "The key to understanding this and other statements about love is to know that this love (the Greek word agape) is not so much a matter of emotion as it is of doing things for the benefit of another person, that is, having an unselfish concern for another and a willingness to seek the best for another."

'Agape' love is not a matter of emotion, the mind, or earthly love, love of the world, but an unselfish love for other human beings, or as Jesus also said, Love others as if they were yourself. Matthew 22:39

This is a difficult concept for a lot of people, because this is not what we have been taught. Personally, I have spent an entire lifetime withdrawing from people, and putting up walls, and judging by outward appearance. I told my neighbor just a few years ago that I do not like people. I heard someone else say recently that they like animals more than they like people. 

In a sermon at church recently, the speaker said, It is easier to preach God's Word than it is to practice what you preach. Man, that is a fact, and one that Jesus stressed repeatedly, Woe to you Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes ... "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Matthew 23:28

Clearly, they were not practicing what they preached. Are we? I know I often do not.

Woe to us!

This is why Jesus reminds us to remove the beam from our eye before we judge our brother for the splinter in his eye.

Every man sins, and there is only one judge for man, God, the Father. Do not judge, lest you be judged. Woe to us! We will appear before the judgment seat of Christ:

James 2

5 "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
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6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?"


In John 13:34 above Jesus says, ". . . Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another."

How did Jesus love us exactly? First of all, He knew God the Father, and the Power of His Word and His Love, so He knew that if He loved with an unselfish, agape love, that God would dwell in him, and his love would be perfected in him, he would experience God's Power of Love.

" . . . If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us." 1 John 4:12

God's love cannot be perfected in us unless and until we have an 'agape' love for all of mankind, especially unbelievers.

Jesus said, "For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans (sinners) the same?" Matthew 5:46

Jesus really could not have made it more clear: do not love the world (Satan is the ruler of this world), but have an 'agape' love for all of mankind. Mankind is God's 'treasure' and 'peculiar people,' 'a royal priesthood,' 'one blood all nations,' and whom, for the very same reasons, is Satan's greatest enemy.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15  Satan is the ruler of this world. Do not love this world. Satan is not the ruler of man, however. We are the ruler of him. We can crush Satan's head, but he can only bruise our heel.

Yet, many of us, me included, struggle with this 'agape' love, because we have a lifetime of conditioning by Satan: influence of family and friends, television and movies, fake news, social(ism) media, and following the 'bad voice' in our heads, but often seldom following God, or the 'good voice.' 

Jesus demonstrated great compassion and 'agape' love, God's love, when he healed leprosy and all manner of weak flesh, and heaped coals of shame on the elders and high priests (Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes) instead.

As Apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 below, we may have every gift from God, our Heavenly Father, but if we do not have God's Power of Love, this 'agape' love for all of mankind, we are nothing:

1 Corinthians 13

1 "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not [a]love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction].

2 And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing.

3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body [b]to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all."

Footnotes: biblegateway.com Amplified Bible
(a) 1 Corinthians 13:1 I.e. a profound thoughtfulness and unselfish concern for other believers regardless of their circumstances or station in life.

(b) 1 Corinthians 13:3 Early mss read so that I may boast, i.e. as a martyr.

Finally, Jesus said in Philippians 2:15, "That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world;"

Our Prayer Today:

Heavenly Father, thank you for our many blessings, and thank you for hearing our prayer today.

We come to you in thanksgiving and prayer, and ask for and receive Your promise of healing and restoration. Oh, Father, help us remember who we are, that we are a 'spark' from you, the Father. Re-ignite our spark, and let your Will be done in our lives, and not our own. 

Help us to shed our old way of thinking, and teachings, our old habits of the flesh, and rain down Your Spirit into our souls, Father, and Your love, an 'agape' love, an unselfish love for others, all of mankind, especially unbelievers, and those sick and hurting, who need You the most. Teach us to love as Jesus did, so that we may be blameless and harmless, and shine as lights in this world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.

For these things we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
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