Love - Christian Word



Love! Perfection’s Goal! 2006/13 05/14/06

“No man has at any time [yet] seen God. But if we love one another, God abides (lives and remains) in us and His love (that love which is essentially His) is brought to completion (to its full maturity, runs its full course, is perfected) in us!

By this we come to know (perceive, recognize, and understand) that we abide (live and remain) in Him and He in us: because He has given (imparted) to us of His [Holy] Spirit.

And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.

In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we, in the world”

Those scriptures are from 1 John 4:12-13 & 16-17, and set the stage for following last weeks lesson and maybe further, and at this point I am not sure where He is taking us, except it is on the path that we had on the board last week, labeled, “path of developed love”

I want to look at a most familiar scripture once again, a rich offering of God’s word, because it is a portion of God’s character revealed through love and a most wonderful definition of that virtue. 1 Cor 13:4 and following;

“…Love endures long and is patient and kind…”; let’s stop right there for a moment and see the first strength His love has. It endures long…! It does not say that this is what love is, but what love does, and it is key to love’s development in us. The word endure is from the greek verb, and means that which bears up courageously under any test, while we are maturing to the point that we can exhibit all that love is, and in some cases that is courageous. And if we look at what this verse says that love is, we see the first, the words, ‘is patient’. I think we do not need to just breeze past that too quick. Go to James, where we all teach on patience and letting it have its perfect work, but then, we have to see that the real trial here is that our faith is being proved. If we were to turn to Gal. 5:6 and read; “For [if we] are in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and working through love”.

And if we read in the next verse, we find there is a conditioned fruit; “But let patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing”.

We could have just entered into a long pull under normal circumstances, but with the Holy Spirit, we are not under normal circumstances, we are empowered to grow up and mature and ripen into the vessel that God ordained from before the foundations, being conformed to the image of the perfect; Jesus. Now we can advance to, ‘is patient and kind.’ This is a great word and this is one of only a few places in the New Testament that it is used in this manner. The word (chresteuomai), and I do not want to pronounce it but it means to act benevolently and do good in the midst of the trial and be useful in passing the test. That sounds like the Holy Spirit that has come along side of us in some difficulty and we hear Him say softly in our spiritual ear, ‘can I help you?’. I don’t have to tell you that there is more to this passage than the first line but I want to share what God is saying to me in this lesson.

To do this, we need to go back to where we started at the beginning today and that is in 1 John where we read that through union and communion with God, love is brought to completion and brought to perfection and in that place alone. As I was thinking on this, on Wednesday this week, napkin in hand, the Lord spoke and this is what I heard;

“Communion with God is more, much more, than a casual acquaintance. It must become a living life-style, a quality time with Him daily. As we seek Him daily, we build a deeper intimacy wherein we learn His heart and that becomes our ‘thought-style’, His never being even a wink from our consciousness. He will then never be just a convenient break in our day or an escape from the chaos of the grind of our day. He actually becomes our schedule and all else is then built around Him. You will become acutely aware of your drawing near to Him and more acutely aware that your drawing near always attracts His presence. That is a promise (James 4:8a), You will find that He is always nearer to us than we ever are to Him unless, we are diligently drawing near. We will find out that He isn’t the One Who moves away or ever gets distracted from us by the activities about. We are always on His mind.

Then following on that word, this one came in and I am going to read it as well because I have not even attempted to memorize it, I seldom ever try to memorize these words that I get. This one from earlier in the week.

“The full truth of God’s love gains Life-force in each of us as we learn to think on Him, meditate on Him and begin to practice love by dismissing the offensive antics of the worldly. Let love be the first thought and response motive you have. Love endures long, and is patient and kind. The test of faith that works by love is to allow the Holy Spirit given fruit of patience to do a most complete work in your life. This is the one place where the “Shalom” of God, the lacking in nothing life, comes into play and love is being perfected and your journey on the path of developed love is progressing. Look up, your redemption is now bearing fruit. You’re beginning to be sheltered and shaded in the secret place of the Most High “Love”. This is truly living by the word of our God and it is the superhighway to life receiving every blessing of God.”

Those two words came just a very few days apart and set the stage for what we are to be about in this season of time here in the earth, and as most all our prophetic brethren and sisters are declaring; “the hour is late”.

The Scriptures are clear and distinct in this area of truth. They never say that God is big or God is power and they don’t even say that God is truth, except where Jesus said that He was the Way and the Truth and the Life. We know that He is all these and much more, He is all in all, but the word does definitely say emphatically that God is Love.

Look at the next portion; 1 Cor 13:5b; Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is never self seeking; Love is never touchy or fretful or resentful; Now all this is a big order and it all speaks loudly of the cross walk that we saw last week. All the above match Jesus’ statement in Lu 9:23;

“And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me (Love) [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My (Love’s) example in living and, if need be, in dying also.”

Did you by chance, catch a glimpse of the cross walk in that love verse? It is there and is the very core of God’s love permeating our lives. Now, lets jump to a deeper cavern, maybe, our past. “Love takes no account of an evil done to it [pays no attention to a suffered wrong] (and I add, even a perceived act). Love has a very limited memory about the past or even the ‘passing’ present, because God’s, agape love refuses to remember wrongs and emotional disruptions in life. It forgives all offenses and the offenders and prays diligently for each one involved. This is the testimony of one who has been born of the Spirit of God, and we see this in 2 Cor 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Do you see here where all your suffered wrongs are, passed away, gone, out of sight, as though they never were.

I love Paul’s word in Philippians 3:10-16, and in the Amplified Bible it is long, but worth the trip because Paul was being fitted into Love’s walk, the path Jesus walked;

“[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] (the power outflow of the cross is love)

Note: The resurrection is not just a past event, but it is a power that is present in each of us at every turn, the Spirit of the power of Love, that God exerted in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead. (Eph 3:20; The power that works within us…)

That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.

Note: Paul was saying that Christ has a purpose and a plan for each of us and we were ‘grasped’ by the Spirit when we were born again and as a result, Paul is saying that he is determined to press on for that to come to pass in his life, so should we.

I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also. [“mind”] Paul wrote to Timothy that God had given him the Spirit of power, love and a sound mind, a sound mind and well disciplined mind and this is the maturity spoken of here.

Only let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that.”

Back to 1 Cor 13 and look further at the fruit that love produces. Love is never envious, never boils over with jealousy, doesn’t boast, and is never haughty [proud]. It is never glad over injustice or unrighteous acts by anyone. Love rejoices at the actions of righteousness and truth prevailing. Of course, this is all of loves’ responses to its surroundings, most of which were negative, but God’s heart is never negative because He is love, and love is very positive and progressive. It’s path is development, and whatever is required in the process.

Now, we basically come to the nitty/gritty portion that is the gap most have to jump more than once. I am going to read the entire verse 7, from the Amplified and make some comment as we go;

“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].”

‘Bears up under anything and everything’, is from the word in the greek, [hupomeno] to stand firm, in place in any confrontation, endure in adversity and persevere under pressure. That is a sizable order, but the next portion is the one that catches many up short. We have to ‘believe the best in every person’, but the problem is that we have to believe the best through the worst. God chose us before the foundation, but when we were born, we came, with the Adamic nature, dead in trespasses and sin and as long as we stay that way, we may not be so easy to love, or should I say, impossible to love, until our flesh has been crucified and the Holy Spirit generated fruit has come to surface. That is for the lost of the world that we often encounter and some are not at all easy to love, but then we may quiet so vulnerable to them, guarding against hurt. But there is a difficult place, that we often find ourselves in, and that is to love some of the brethren, that do not think as we do and offer every opportunity for conflict. That becomes difficult, because we are a bit more vulnerable there in the church setting, with brethren, but we must remember that Love is patient and kind in every situation and with every crowd, and bears up under anything and holds its peace in every type of storm.

Are we having fun yet? This is a most testing passage but a most essential one for our growing up into really mature vessels that God has purposed for us to be. We must remember that even the disciples had their differences, but they also had recall of the commandment that Jesus had given them. John 13:34-35;

“I give you a new commandment; that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. (even in the midst of differences and conflict)

By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you keep on showing love among yourselves].”

Then in John 14:15 He locked those verses with this one; “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.”

Then we can finish this with the words that finish this verse and they need no explanation, just listen, 1 Cor 13:7b;

“..its (love’s) hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].”

Now we go to the last part of the Love passage, and it is vs. 8a;

“Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].”

The bottom line of this is that love never looks for an excuse to not love. It can not find a path of failure, because it is the love that went to the cross, the unfailing love of God that was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and there is no one in this room, as difficult as we might have been that God ever got tired of loving. This is the pattern of the image that we are to be conformed too. Jesus, Who saw us chosen before the foundation of the world and saw our whole lives, lived in the degradation of the fallen state, loved us even unto death on the cross and He said that we are to follow His example even to the crucifixion of self. In that we can love as He loved us, in every situation. Paul addressed this very human situation, that is always present, arising in everyone’s walk and wrote the following to the Colossians in 3:12-14;

“Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper]. [love’s character]

Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].

And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].”

God’s ultimate will is to impart His life and His nature into us as His children, so that we might be as He is, holy and righteous. We, because of the Agape love, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, are to follow His example in a laid down life, so that we might impart His life and nature to others. As Jesus said; Love one another even as I have loved you. Love has a prize and Paul saw it.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man

The things which God has prepared

for those who love Him.”

From 1 Cor 2:9, and there we see the words, ‘those who love Him’ and we just read that if we truly love Him we will do and keep His commands.

We have been looking into the season of Tabernacles, which we believe that we are now in, the season that most believe that Jesus will come for His church in and the word, in 1 John 3:2 we read the following;

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

And in Acts 1:11, the angels who were at His ascension, as He was taken up in the cloud [Shekinah glory], said; This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Jesus passed all the tests and He is the perfect one, Who encountered everything, as we do, and more, yet without sinning. Merlin Carothers, the author of Prison to Praise, in his recent newsletter, wrote that we are now in the season of final preparation, with golden opportunities of tests to pass and we are being readied for His coming for us, as we have heard the ‘Trumpets” calling, sounding the alarm for repentance, and we are in the time of “Atonement”, a time of redemption, being prepared for “Tabernacles” when we will celebrate and rejoice at the Marriage feast of the Lamb in glory. Are you ready? Look up, for your redemption draws nigh.

Class! Be Abundantly Blessed!!

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download