I wasn't going to post this, guys don't
talk about love, we just grunt, beat our chests and compete in
displays of strength and courage. But one of the greatest
displays of strength and courage is displaying love in adverse
circumstances and also a great display of God's love. Also at
Influencers Australia the current sermon series is, Relentless,
Loves pursuit of you.
Three things will last forever faith, hope,
and love and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians
13:13.
There is a way of life that lasts beyond this world a life built
on the foundation of the everlasting principles of faith, hope and
love. But why do these three things last forever?
Jesus replied, "You must love the LORD your
God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is
the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important:
`Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the
demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40.
Love is the foundation of the law and the prophets and arguably
the whole bible, with the ultimate expression of this love being
Jesus's death on the cross to restore our relationship with our
Heavenly Father.
The train of thought that lead to this blog post didn't start
out with the scripture above. Initially I was thinking about
what we do as Christians and how we do it. Then the above
scripture sprang to mind and it clicked, that it is why love is so
important and everlasting. Our love for God governs what we
do and our love for people governs how we do it, it's why without
love anything we do is empty and meaningless.
To bring life into a situation and be true ambassadors of the
Kingdom we need to show both our love for God and our love for
people, including our fellow Christians, in the way we
behave. Often I think we get the first right and we do the
right thing out of our love for God but then just expect everything
to work out because after all this is what God wants me to
do. But the second commandment is equally as important as the
first, meaning that how we do what God tells us to do is just as
important as making sure that we do what he tells us to do.
But I can't live up to this! That's what we think, when we
hear this or read about it in the bible and that is the point of
the Gospel. In Hebrews God tells us that as part of the new
covenant he has written his law in our hearts.
But this is the new covenant I will
make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I
will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their
hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Hebrews
8:10
Love is the foundation of our character as Christians and as
such should govern everything we do, but it is not something we
have to strive to be it is what God has made us when we believe in
him and follow him.
All Scripture taken from, 2004 Holy Bible Text Edition NLT,
Tyndale House Publishers.