Friday May 05th, 2023
« Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.»
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love, does not know God; because God is love.
9 This is how God showed His love toward us; He sent His one and only Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
In Song of Solomon 8:7, love is described as being so strong that many waters cannot quench it.
It is also described as having more worth than all of one’s possessions because it satisfies like nothing else can.
How true the word of God is!
Love is the greatest antidote against evil tendencies because the Bible declares that God is love 1 John 4:8.
There is no evil in God, and so there cannot be evil in love.
However, love is not the misconception the world has taken it to be.
The devil has deceived the world into misconstruing lust as love.
Love is a decision that originates from the expression of God nature.
Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us two dimension of love: love towards God and love towards fellow human beings Matthew 22:37-40.
The Holy spirit sheds more light on the link between these two aspects of love, saying in 1 John 4:20:
« If someone say, I love God, and hates their brethren, that person is a liar: for whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they can see, how can such a person love God whom they have not seen? »
In order words, we can only express our love to God through those who are created in His image.
Indeed, the only way to prove that you know God is to demonstrate His kind of love to others.
God’s kind of love is that which gives to those who did not deserve it.
On the contrary, many children of God are selective of those they show love to.
They love those who love them and hate those who hate them!
Whereas Jesus Christ says in Luke 6:32-33:
« For if you love those who loves you, what thank have you? for sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them which do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even the same. »
The implication of these words is that if God requires us to love even our enemies, He expects us to love our fellow brethren in Christ even more.
As a matter of fact, God places a higher premium on the task of showing love towards the brethren Galatians 6:10.
Beloved, if you find it difficult to love people, it is probably because you have not experienced the love that the Father bestowed upon us when He forgave us our sins and declared us to be His children 1 John 3:1.
If that is the case with you, I encourage you to give your life to Christ today and embrace His divine love.
You might also find it difficult to love people if many people have wronged you in the past.
In any case, you need to open up your heart for the Holy Spirit to work on you so that you can begin to manifest His fruit of love.
May the Almighty God give you the capacity to love, particularly those of the household of faith, in Jesus’ Name.
Application: Demonstrate the love of God to someone that God ministers to your heart is in need of it today.
Author: Bishop Enoch. A. Adeboye.
Edited by Naomie
Freely you received, freely you must give (Math 10:8) , kindly share this devotion, and the Lord will bless you for it .
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