The more we learn and discover God's love the more we can express His love to others.
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves God has been born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7 NIV
God is love. God does not give love, He is love. In and out, top and bottom, through and around Him is love. This Agape love He has shared with us is freely given to us because of the love He has for us. Read that again. By His grace our sins are covered and by His love we are set free. His love has been revealed to us through His Son Jesus. Because Jesus lives inside of us, we have His love inside of us too. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind and then the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbour as you love yourself (Luke 10:27). Love, what a comforting and life-fulfilling word...
In the Bible, Paul talks about God's grace and our sin a few times. When we live under God's grace, it does not mean we can still continue to sin. Jesus died for our sin so that we may share eternal life with Him. Our sins are now covered by His blood and we live under God's merciful grace. But this does not give us the liberty to continue sinning. Paul says that we become slaves to our sin. Sin is like a chain around our throats leading us to death. Jesus came to deliver us from that, so if we love Him and are thankful for what He did for us, how can we think it is alright to continue sinning? And of course, we are human and we do sin - everyday in fact. But to continue to sin, when we know it is wrong, we become slaves to that sin and that is a trap set out for all believers today. However, Jesus remains there and is merciful. But a time will come when God's justice will be revealed and those who are bound to their sin, by not living a sinless and righteous life in Jesus, will experience the full wrath of God. That is definitely not a place I want to be in. So when we love God with all our hearts, soul and mind, we are bringing honour to His name and to do this we need to live a righteous, holy life found in Jesus - and through this His love is revealed.
To love God, means to love others too. Jesus tells us to constantly love one another. If He loved us so, then we need to love others too. Love your enemies, don't curse them. This is revealing Jesus to others! I would often question how I could repay Jesus after He displayed such compassion and mercy to us, and in His Word He tells us that we repay Him by loving one another. How extraordinary! Jesus does not require us to live under law and debt for the rest of our lives after what He did. All He asks of us is to love one another as He has loved us. This is a true God! A loving and merciful God we serve, amen!
So, the more we learn and discover God's love the more we can express His love for others. As disciples of Jesus, let us love one another as He has loved us because this is the greatest gift we can give to others to bring glory to His name and serve in His Kingdom! Hallelujah!
I challenge you today to rid of the strongholds that sin has in your life, and become renewed in the love God has given you. And then remain in that righteous living, Jesus deserves all the glory! Amen.
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