"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV)
We who believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded and God-gifted
faith in him – a faith which results in us dying with Christ to sin and us walking
in obedience to his commands – results in us being gifted of the Holy Spirit
with spiritual gifts and us being given assignments within the body of Christ
(our body parts) by God, which we are to operate in in using the gifts given to
us by God to minister his love and grace to the rest of the body of Christ.
But in this operating in the gifts of the Spirit, given to
us by God, we are to make certain that we are doing so in love, and that we are
people of God who truly love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and our own blood
relatives, and the people of this world. But this is not speaking of human love,
which is based in our emotions, and in how we feel, but this is agape love
which comes from God and which loves as God loves us.
So why is it important that we make that distinction?
Because many people interpret “love” by human flesh and not by the Spirit of
God, and so some of them make false assumptions and false judgments about what love
is and what this love should look like when we are walking by the Spirit and we
are operating in the Spirit in the use of these spiritual gifts. And so they
may judge others of sincere heart as those not acting in love when they are.
Well, this love comes from God and it prefers what God
prefers, which is all that is holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, honest,
faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his commands. When we love God with
this kind of love we prefer to live through Christ and to obey his commands in
his power. And when we love others with this love, we want for them what God
wants for them, according to his word and to his will and purpose for our
lives.
So we will love the people like Jesus loved us. And when he
lived on the earth he showed that love to the people in many different ways. He
healed the sick and afflicted, and delivered people from demons, and he raised
the dead, and he fed the hungry miraculously (twice), and he performed all sorts
of miracles, and he comforted the sorrowful, and he had compassion on the
hurting. For he cared deeply for the people and for their needs.
But he also spoke the truth of the gospel to them, and he
told them that to come after him they must deny self, take up their cross daily
(die daily to sin) and follow him in walks of obedience to his commands. For if
they held on to their lives of living in sin and for self, they would lose their
lives for eternity. But if they denied self, died daily to sin, by the Spirit,
and they walked in obedience to his commands, then they had eternal life with
God.
Now a lot of people think of “love” only in terms of two
paragraphs above where I described how Jesus did all those things for the
people. And they reject the idea that telling people the truth is “love.” They
would not have considered some of Jesus’ conversations with the Scribes and
Pharisees as love at all, but it was love to tell them the truth that they
needed to hear, even if Jesus did not sugar-coat it to make it sound less offensive.
So, the point here is that Jesus Christ is our model that we
should follow in understanding how we are to love others. Yes, he did lots of
nice things for them, and they liked that. And that was good, and it was
loving. But he also told them the truth that they needed to hear, and not many
of them liked that. And he confronted them with their sins and warned of divine
judgment if they did not forsake their sins and follow Jesus in obedience to
his ways.
And that, too, is love! Why? Because the only way that any
of us are going to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God is if we
turn away from our sinful practices and we now follow our Lord in walks of
obedience to his commands in holy living. For many will proclaim Jesus as “Lord”
of their lives but they will not obey his commands, and so they do not have
salvation from sin, and they do not have the hope of eternal life with God in
heaven.
It is not ever love to lie to the people and to dilute the
gospel message in order to appease human flesh and to not offend the people of
the world. It might make them feel good, and they may like you because of it,
but lies are never kind or loving. True love speaks what the people need to hear
and to believe so that they can have genuine biblical salvation from sin and
true hope of eternal life with God. But we need to speak the truth in love.
[Matthew 5:43-46; Matthew
7:13-14,21-23; Luke 6:27-28; Luke
9:23-26; Luke 10:27; John
1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; John 13:34-35; John 15:12; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans
6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21;
Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews
3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John
3:4-10]
In Harmony
An Original Work / September 2, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Based off Ro. 12:9-21; 1 Pet. 3:8-17
Love each other
truly.
Cling to what is
good.
Hate all that is
evil.
Never lack in zeal.
Serve the Lord with
fervor.
Joyful in hope be;
Patient in
affliction;
Praying faithfully.
Honor one another.
Live in harmony.
Share with all God’s
people
Who are found in
need.
Do not be conceited.
Sympathetic be.
Love, and show
compassion
In humility.
Keep your tongue
from evil.
Peaceful you must
be.
Honor one another.
Live in harmony.
God sees who are
righteous;
Listens to their
prayers.
But He’s against
evil –
Is His to avenge.
Do not fear what
they fear.
Suffer patiently.
In your hearts, make
Christ Lord.
Serve Him
faithfully.
Honor one another.
Live in harmony.
But Have Not Love
An Original Work / February 10,
2025
Christ’s Free
Servant, Sue J Love
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