Today, I feel a stirring on this one as I write and I truly want to be careful with it because this is the most precious gift besides life- yet often the most abused one as well.
(But...If you're just joining us, make sure you check out the last two blogs where we talk about being an example in WORD and then in CONVERSATION.)
(But...If you're just joining us, make sure you check out the last two blogs where we talk about being an example in WORD and then in CONVERSATION.)
And yet, our Father calls us to an example of HIS love on this Earth in this passage. This is so important to Him that He says that our love will be the mere sign that others would KNOW that we are His. In other words, people should look at us and KNOW that we are His because WE should be looking JUST like Him in LOVE.
So HOW did Yeshua love? And how do we really know if we're walking in His love?
Whew...Yeah, put your seatbelt on for this one...it may get bumpy. First, let us look at the love of the Father and His Son; afterall, they are our personal example to follow. And as always, lets go to scriptures:
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Ephesians 5:2: “… walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her ….”
1 John 3:16: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
So the requirement here is???? He gave. He gave His life. In a society where we are busy trying to live the lives we've been given for ourselves, how often do we stop and just ask, "Lord how can I give myself to you today?" How often do we seek Him in all of our ways. I can tell you almost everything I wanted to do carnally wasn't what He desired from me but we won't go there. Let's move on. How else did He love?
He had compassion on people, and His compassion moved Him to do what He could to change people's lives. He healed them through compassion. He fed them through compassion. He ministered to them through compassion. He looked over the city and wept because of the condition of it. He cared for people and it didn't matter what kind of people it was. He ate with sinners and rebuked the church people and I believe that even that was a reflection of love. The word says that He rebukes those He loves.
We can go through the Bible back and forth and see how time and time again Yah's love has NEVER FAILED US. And the scriptures say that LOVE never fails. Let's just go ahead and look at that:
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Click for reference but what I encourage you to do is to really study this scripture as far as the definitions of each verb. This is the measure of what "love" should look like and this love is IN us! It is already IN us!
Let me show you by going to Romans 5:5
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
This word shed abroad, according to Strong's reference G1632, means pour out (12x), shed (4x), shed forth (1x), spill (1x), run out (1x), shed (5x), run greedily (1x), shed abroad (1x), gush out (1x), spill (1x).
So what does this mean? It means that when He commands you to love others as HE loves them, He has already given you the ability to do this! Self effort is not neccessary. He knows already that we cannot in human, carnal flesh love to the extent that He requires us to. So He goes, "Ya know, Yeshua I need you to be the ultimate sacrifice. I need you to live the life with the Holy Spirit on Earth that they need to live so that they can come back home in right fellowship. I need you to save them Son." And Yeshua comes back and says what? "Yes, Father."
His entire purpose was to fulfill in flesh what we could not do! And He came with the fullness of the Holy Spirit in Him. I feel like at this moment this is going to another lesson but it's important that I hit this and let you guys know that when Yeshua left this Earth, HE *insert speaker phone emoji, lol* LEFT the PROMISE of the Holy Spirit and HE is how we LOVE like we're commanded to. How do we know this? Look back at Romans 5:5 - the Word says the love is shed in our hearts BY the Holy Ghost. He put it there.
In your flesh, you can't forgive the unforgivable and you can't love people "in spite of", although that is exactly what the Father did for us. There's this lie that you can never "forgive and forget." Yes, I say this is a lie because I can't tell you how many times I have loved, blessed, forgiven and acted as if people have never hurt me and not because of any repressed emotion! I've uplifted them instead of exposing them. I've been with them as if their act against me has NEVER HAPPENED. I remember even telling the Father one day, "If you don't heal me soon I know I'm gonna fight her!" Now, I didn't say it like that, lol, but y'all I was serious. A serious hurt, hot mess. But I was really set on forgiving her.
WHY???? Because "love keeps no record of wrong"- it COVERS. Now we live in a culture that wants to do nothing but expose people. Now the world will tell you that you're stupid or weak for forgiving people but this is what the scriptures says!!! We forgive SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN. See if we would stop and measure how we treat our famiily, freinds and enemies according to this - man omg what could we change!?! Wow! I literally just start messing up typing in excitment thinking about the POWER of love and forgiveness breaking through!
So does this make it less of a burden for you now? To understand that He doesn't expect you to carry a load that He has already carried?! Ya know...I've even (and recently) asked myself how could I love like I was loving. I was like, "Why do I love this person like this?" Everything I did for them wasn't conditional. I expected nothing back. And no matter how they repsonded, I just looooooooooved them. Then I heard a small voice, "That's my love." See HE shows up in our weaknesses. And you know what this does? It glorifies the FATHER!!! Is that not the whole goal! To GLORIFY OUR FATHER! To BLOW HIM UP! Come on! We're talking about the God of ABRAHAM, ISSAC, AND JACOB!!! Oh My! I'm getting excited.
Let's wrap this up. This week I encourage you to meditate on the love of our Father and our brother Yeshua! Think on it over and over, and ask the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself in this area so that we can be examples of Him in love. Click here for a quick lesson on the Holy Spirit and prayer to receive Him if you haven't.
Next week, we'll continue with being an example in faith! I'm ready to see what He's going to do with that so I hope you're excited too!
#iAGAPEyou