Love is the greatest
message of the gospel. In fact, Christianity is all about love. A righteous
Christian is a loving Christian and it takes only a loving Christian to make
heaven. He who does not Love does not
know God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8). The real definition of God is love
don't be deceived. Love is the heart beat of God,, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,,,, John
3:16. Love here come before giving, to be like God is to love like God and
to love like God is to love unconditional; ,,,in that while we are yet in sin Christ died for us (Roman 5:8). Go
and search your bible from Genesis to Revelation, you will not see where God
give condition for loving us.
God's kind of love is
the agape love - love without condition. Love to God is not feelings or
emotion, it is not about how you feel rather is about your action towards
something, it's obedience, it is character reflection . That is why Jesus says,
"if you love me keep my commandment" (John14:15). Keeping here means
obedience to God's commandment, not confession, neither feeling the presence;
obedience is better than sacrifice. The greatest commandment is the commandment
of love.
HOW
TO LOVE GOD LIKE CHRIST
Jesus
said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. on these two commandment hang all the law and the prophets (Mathew 22:37-40)
The basis of Christian service is rooted in love.
Any service by a Christian that is not based on love is not profitable and lack
blessing. And though I bestowed All my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing (1 Cor. 13:3).
This mean that, whatsoever you are doing as a Christian must be on the basis of
love not because you want to please someone; your pastor, spouse etc. Loving
God with thy whole heart, mind and soul means loving him what all you have. It
means self denial, being ready to die for the expansion of God's kingdom. It
means loving God in all condition, whether he bless you or not, it means that
the gospel must cost you something.
Let me tell you this simple truth,
loving God is actually a decision you must sit down and make, it is not based
on emotion or feeling. You must decide whether you are ready to forsake all
things to follow him. God is a relational being, he want to know if he give you
his heart, will you not break it? He is asking you, If I bless you, will you
still serve me? Will you not be carried away by fame, friends, goals, and the
affair of this life. Luke 14:26-27 (NIV) says, "If anyone comes to me and
does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and
sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who
does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." He do you now love God?
Love God through your Worship: Worship goes beyond singing hymn
to God, to includes all activities you engaged that glorify his name. It
entails keeping his commandment, Jesus says, If you love me keep my
commandment. So is not about confessing the love is about obeying his command.
You need to prove it, the three Hebrew Jews: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
proves theirs even in the face of death. They told the King, we are not careful
to answer you in this matter,,,,, even
if our God is not able to deliver us we won't bow before your Idol (Daniel 3:
14-30). So many have displayed rugged courage for the gospel, are you ready
to display such. Remember, Luke
9:23-25 (NIV) says, "Then he
said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it
for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?'
Love God through Preaching the
Gospel: The only
commandment Jesus gave to his disciple after his resurrection was to preach the
gospel to every creature. ,,,, go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be dawned (Mark
16:15-16). If you are saved, you show Christ love by talking to someone
about Jesus today. It doesn't matter how you say it, the holy spirit is there
to do the remaining work. Yours is to talk the holy spirit is the one that
convict. The people cannot get saved without someone telling them the truth.
Remember 2 Corr. 5:15-22, refers us
as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, whom he has reconciled to God. Therefore, we
are suppose to reconcile others to him also.
Love God through Praying for the lost soul:
One thing you should know is that many words does not change people, what
change them is encounter with the Holy spirit, that can only take place at the altar
of prayer. Many unbelievers eye has been blinded that nothing you tell them
will change them, so in that case you switch to prayer. Praying that the Holy
spirit open their eye and convert them by himself. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them (2 Corr. 4:4). So pray for the lost
souls in your family, friends, co-workers and your neighbors.
Love God through your sacrifice: The highest level of Sacrifice
one can make is the sacrifice of self. I beseech you therefore,,,,, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom.
12:1). Mind you love is sacrifice, and sacrifice is obedience. Every
sacrifice we make is as a result of obeying a principle, so one of the
principle of loving Jesus is by walking in the spirit. By renewing our mind on
heavenly thing, our heart should be focus on God's kingdom, let everything you
do be based on fulfilling God's kingdom. Your work should be based on expanding
God's kingdom, use every opportunity to expand God's kingdom.
HOW
TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR LIKE CHRIST
And
the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Mathew
22:39). Romans 13:8 (NIV) says, "...he who loves his fellow
man has fulfilled the law." John 13:34-35 (NIV) says, "A
new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another."
The essence of Christian life is loving others just
as we love ourselves. Therefore,
whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" ( Mathew 7: 12).
Jesus said, that every other laws are
hinged upon that very commandment. Paul also collaborate that fact {Rom. 13: 8-10}.
Paul in his own word said, he who love his own fellow man has fulfilled the
law. If you love someone, you will want his own happiness as much as you want
your own. If you won't be happy, if someone insult you or disrespect you, you
won't do it to others. The problem is that people has failed to ask themselves
simple questions:
Would you want your wife to commit adultery with another man? Would you want someone to murder you or to murder someone you love? Would you want someone to steal from you, lie to you, covet your possessions? Would you want someone to molest your daughter, be rude to you, distrust you, be cruel to you? Of course not! So don't go and do these things to other people! For when you go about doing these things you do not love and you are not saved. The practical Christianity is a lover of others no matter the cost.
Would you want your wife to commit adultery with another man? Would you want someone to murder you or to murder someone you love? Would you want someone to steal from you, lie to you, covet your possessions? Would you want someone to molest your daughter, be rude to you, distrust you, be cruel to you? Of course not! So don't go and do these things to other people! For when you go about doing these things you do not love and you are not saved. The practical Christianity is a lover of others no matter the cost.
Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
commands us to "owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who
loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not
commit adultery,' 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not
bear false witness,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there is any other
commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the
fulfillment of the law"
HOW THEN DO YOU EXPRESS YOUR LOVE TO OTHERS?
Love can be expressed to others in several ways,
following the example of Christ. 1
John 3:16-18 (NIV) is the definitive statement
about love. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ
laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our
brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need
but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children,
let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." Few of this example will be explained
briefly;
Give to others: God bless you not only for
yourselves but also for others, especially our fellow brethren in the Lord.
Your wealth, however little is to be used to affect other people life. Give to
your fellow Christians, give to the poor and needy, because in doing so you
have giving to Christ when he is in need. Love is your ability to give to
others even when you didn't have enough to sustain you. Givers never lack, be a
giver always rather than be a receiver, let God answer someone prayer through
you.
Pray for others: Praying for the needs of others
is very important to Christians living. When people are in need, they want people
to pray for them, so you show them love by praying for their needs. Visit your
fellow brethren, share the gospel with them and pray for them by this they know
they are loved by others.
In nutshell, be patient with others, give them time
to change and grow to the level you are. Learn to accommodate other people
weakness, since no human being is perfect. Be kind to others, to be kind means
to help them in any area of their life as much as you can. Respect others,
don't be rude to people, greet people when you see them, it doesn't matter if
you senior them. That is the heart of love, trust their ability, let people
understand your confidence in their strength; it gives them sense of belonging.
The person you love, you will not envy nor will you feel bad about his or her
achievement, be happy with people when they are happy, console them when they
are in distress. By this shall people know that you are the true disciple of
Jesus Christ.
The message of Jesus and his disciple is all about
love, anyone that love is sure to make heaven. The person that love is sure to
live above sin and will never struggle to live for Christ. When you love others,
you will not be afraid of what man can do to you, you will be sure of making
heaven. There is no fear in love; but
perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is
not made perfect in love (1 John 4: 18). He who does not love his
brother does not love God, because you must love the person you see first
before loving someone you did not see.
I beseech
you like Paul, that you love your neighbors unconditionally not because they
deserve your love, but because Jesus commanded you to that. To love God
effectively focus your attention on Christ and see yourselves loving like God,
see yourselves as not the one loving this people but rather Christ loving them
through you. My prayer is that God will give you heart to love him and others more
and more. Be free to share your view about how you develop your love for
others, you can be helping someone out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment