'Love' Tagged Posts

'Love' Tagged Posts

ABOVE ALL PUT ON LOVE

This does not mean that you can put on love and ignore the others. Rather, to put on love above all these things is to superimpose love upon all the others things we are to put on. If you put on a compassionate heart, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering without putting on love we are really just putting on a show. However, if you superimpose love on top of those things the ending result will be a bond of peace and unity. (Eph. 4:3)

THE LOVE COMMANDMENT

Jesus showed by example what love truly is. By laying down his life for us he demonstrated that greatest emptying of one self for others. He commands us to show the same type of love for others. Godly love is a self-sacrificial giving of ourselves for the benefit of others. The commandment is for all Christians to all Christians. On this Valentine’s Day and every day after, let’s surrender to His commandment.

IMMEASUREABLE, TIMELESS LOVE

Americans this year will spend a estimated $27.4 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts such as flowers, candy, perfume etc. to express their love for their significant other. At most, the flowers, as beautiful as they are will last a week or two. The perfume….much longer, the candy, not so. God’s expression of His love for us however, is immeasurable, timeless and available to all who will simply receive the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.

WHAT IS LOVE?

There was a popular song on the air waves back in the ’80’s titled “I Want to Know What Love Is” which charted at #1, selling millions of copies. According to the artist who wrote it, it was born out of frustration with not finding a perfect relationship. After many failed relationships, he was looking for something that would endure. Many people today are looking for that “enduring” relationship, all the while wanting to know “what love is”. We have the answer, God is love! His love is enduring, unconditional and unmerited.

THE DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE

How does one properly articulate the scope and depth of God’s love? I must admit that l fall woefully short in the task of doing so. Frederick M. Lehman however captured the essence very well in the Hymn that we’re all familiar with: “The Love of God.” The last stanza of that hymn is: Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

SPIRIT OF BONDAGE

In this verse the spirit of bondage is contrasted with the Spirit of adoption. The spirit of bondage describes the lost person that lives in fear of death and/or fear of judgment from God. Therefore, their relationship to God is one of fear that produces torment (1 John 4:18). However, the Christian has the Spirit of adoption that affirms God is our loving heavenly Father and we are His child. Therefore, we are able to live for God based upon love and not fear. What a blessing!