Love the Lord your God with all your heart! Love your neighbor as yourself. Let the older women teach the younger women to love their husband and their children…that the Word of God no be blasphemed. Love your enemies. What a strange word is this word LOVE.
The Apostle Paul, who wrote for us 13 books of our Bible, wrote for us the Love Chapter. Beth Moore, a precious woman of God, who ministers through her conferences, books Bible Studies, etc., was here in Atlanta last April. In conclusion, she gave her audience a charge to memorize it. To memorize this chapter, just like I memoized Psalm 91, I must pray it every day. So since that day, we women who pray daily the prayer blanket have prayed 1 Cor. 13.
Paul begins by declaring to us that regardless of all the wonderful things we do, without LOVE, we’re nothing. Then, beginning with verse 4 and continuiing through the beginning of verse 8, Paul gives us the character traits of LOVE:
When we read the love chapter, we wonder, we have to ask the question, Do we love anyone? Are we patient and kind with everyone in our life? Are we patient and kind with anyone 24/7. I mean, it’s easy to love someone who loves us back. It’s easy to love affectionate, appreciative, encouraging people, but haven’t we been told we are to love the unlovely? The Lord said, in Matthew 5, 46, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?” Stranger and stranger is this word LOVE.
Love is a fruit of the Spirit. Or is it a fruit? Years ago, I was shown a Truth in the Word that has blessed my socks off! The one sharing this mystery with me was an evangelist, and he said there should be a colon after love in Galatians 5: 22-23. He said it should read: But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Love, I believe is the fruit of the Spirit, and the other eight are characteristics of Love. 1 Corinthians 13 backs that up. We can take all the things that love is, and we can lay it side by side with the 8 characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit.
As we read more in the Word about fruit, the Lord says that we are not to only bear fruit, but He has so planned for us to bear much fruit! He tells us that the way we are to know each other – the body of Christ or the brethren – is by our fruit. A good tree can’t bear bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t buy good fruit. We are even to know the brethren -- other believers -- in one scripture it says, by our fruit, in another, by their love.
Speaking of love, John, the beloved disciple, tells us, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4: 8). We love Him because He first loved us, He who loves God must love his brother also (1 John 19 & 21).
There are so many precious promises regarding God's love. 1 John 5: 3 says, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. Verse 4, Whatever is born of God, overcomes the world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
In order to keep God's commandments, we must abide in His Word, hiding it in our hearts that we not sin against Him. Abide means to stay. Therefore, we seek the Secret Place of the Most High, abiding in His Word every day, so that He gives us the desires of our hearts.
Fruit trees bear fruit. Inside, there are many seeds, each representing a tree with fruit. When we internalize all this, meditating – eating the Word – then that Love grows in us, molding and making us in His image. We are now, living epistles. We abide in the vine – the LOVE – Jesus who is God – and He abides in us, and we ask what we will and it will be done for us!
Very important to note is that if we plant a seed, we expect the kind of the tree to reproduce itself. In the Garden, in the beginning with Adam, plants and animals, including man, reproduced after their kind. In other words, if I plant squash, then, apples are not going to come up. In order to reap apples, I must sow apples. In order for me to reap love, I must sow love -- which includes all the characteristics in this chapter.
Now, that I know this, I must share what I know. The Lord declares to the elder women in the Church to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children and describes how.
If I say I love my husband, am I patient and kind 24/11? Am I not jealous or boastful or proud or rude? Do I not demand my own way? (this hurts) Am I never irritable? Do I keep no record of being wronged -- thinking no evil? (this probably is the bog down in all of us -- for if we are not forgiving and forgetting as our Lord does, we are holding up our on answers to prayer). We must never give up! We must never lose Faith! We must always be hopeful and endure through every circumstance!
2 comments:
Me and my husband just finished up our study on 1st Cor. last night. I know from alot of people I know they think they have to just love their friends and family but God calls us to go beyond that. It is so easy to love our friends and family like you said it is easy to love people who love us. The real challenge is loving the unloveable. I sometimes strugle with this but I have to keep reminding myself Christ died for all of us and maybe there is a reason this person is so bitter and maybe a kind word or encourgement is just what they need. Very insightful blog. Amanda Jordan
We must never give up! We must never lose Faith! We must always be hopeful and endure through every circumstance!........ Thank you most for these words!!
Post a Comment