Posts Tagged ‘ Love ’
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100:5, ESV
God did not need us.
But He created us, even knowing how we would treat Him.
But He told us in the Garden of Eden that He had a plan to save us, and one day He will make all things new.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.
Psalm 63:3-4, ESV
True life is found in the love of God.
Give God the Father thanks and praise for sharing His love through the vicarious death of His Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I know (for most of you, at least) that you read ” the opposite of love” and think “is hate.”
I disagree. (And if you already know what I think about this, please hold your comments until the end. Thanks.)
Hatred comes from one of two places.
The first is loving something/someone so much that you want to protect that love. Anything that interferes with or threatens that bond or the well-being of the object of love is rightfully hated.
“do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”
Zechariah 8:17, ESV
As a reminder, this does not mean we hate people. People are acting out from the real problem: sin, the evil within.
We hate the sin. (We can have another conversation at another time about the saying “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Also, another another conversation can be had about jealousy.)
What is this?
I will ask a few questions to get us there:
Hopefully you see it now!
Fear leads to all kinds of craziness, such as avoiding others, making mistakes, hurting others, and even hatred.
This is not to say that fear always leads to hatred. Hatred can come from misplaced love (loving self or something more than is good) or ignorance (both innocent and willful ignorance). This is a mixture of the first source of hatred and fear.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18, ESV
Loving others frees us of hatred and the fear of what they may do to us.
Love also frees us of the fear of God’s punishment for our sin, but only when we see the truth that He loved us and showed it by coming as a man to sacrifice Himself for the forgiveness of our sin. This is also what empowers us to love others. (1 John 4:19)
It is also what reminds us that, while we are born into and perpetuate the sin of Adam and Eve, we are freed from that sin.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1, ESV
Through Christ we are adopted into the family of God, for the Father sees His Son when He looks at believers. We know Him through the Holy Spirit who shows us the Son.
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
3 John 1:2, ESV
We should encourage each other and lift each other up.
Especially, we should encourage each other to strengthen our souls through reading Scripture, prayer, and communal worship.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18, ESV
When found in Christ, we are no longer condemned. The fear of punishment is gone.
We should still tremble before a mighty God, but our fear should transform into not wanting to disappoint our loving God who first loved us.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21, ESV
How many ways can it be said?
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Love your enemies.
If your brother sins against you, forgive him.
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 ESV
Christ’s love literally covers our sins.
We can love others enough to see past their sins and see the image of God within them.
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19, ESV
Everything we do should come out of the knowledge that God loves us, as so beautifully and horribly demonstrated through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Our desire should be to live that way because He did and does.
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
Luke 6:27-28, ESV
Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Also, it is easier to share the gospel with others when they see us loving those who mistreat us.
a simple man of God 