-January 27, 2023-
Good morning, happy Friday,
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
“Let all that you do be done with love” (1 Corinthians 16:14).
Love is the greatest attribute known to man. Only the believer in Christ can love in the way God intends it to be. God is love; God so loved the world; God sets the example of love. Of the nine fruit of the Spirit love is the top of list in Galatians 5:22-23). In the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, Paul wonderfully wrote, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophesy, and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-4).
Love is found throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and is the best and brightest star in God’s universe. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and reclined on His bosom said, “If God so loved us, we also ought to love another.” Love is the best motive in all that we say and do. What we do and say is great, but how we do it or say it far greater. No service for the without love will pass muster. Love helps us be a blessing to one another. We all know some people who undo the love’s laces, causing love’s shoes to fall off. Love is volitional, practical, and eternal.
• Love is volitional – Love is not just an emotion, it is an act of the will. We must choose to love others. Only Jesus taught us to love our foes as well as one’s friends; to love others as He loved us. This is why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:14, “Let all that you do be done with love.” The old axiom is still true today, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Someone once said, “People will respond better to you if you are polite than if you are rude.” We are most like Jesus when we love others as He loved and loves us.
• Love is practical – Love must always be practical and sacrificial. In describing love, Paul wrote, “Love suffers long as is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians13:4-8a). If we don’t love practically, we can’t love at all. Our love must be sincere and personal; sacrificial and deep.
• Love is eternal – Love outlives us, and lasts for all eternity. There are very few things in this world that lasts a lifetime, love on the other hand, lasts for all eternity. That is why Paul said, “Now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Once we get to heaven we won’t need faith or hope any longer, for we will be in God’s presence, but love will always be needed. When launching a space craft or satellite into space the rocket has enough fuel called propellant to boost it above the most of the Earth’s atmosphere, at just the right distance from the Earth, then it releases the satellite or spacecraft. So faith launches us, and hope propels, but then they fall away leaving love to soar through space.
Let us then love one another volitionally, practically, and eternally. The wedding vows, the ring, and the kiss each illustrate love: the vows show one’s volition to love the other person, the kiss is the seal to make it practical from this moment on, and the ring symbolizes that it is eternal, as the ring has no end. Stay safe and heathy loving others.
Loving as Jesus loves us,
Dean
Dean Allen's Daily Devotional 