True Love
Love is the programming language...the code...all of creation was written in. Love is sacrificial commitment to relationship. Commitment at cost is the bond of unity...this is what love is: the perfect (complete) bond:
Colossians 3:13-14 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
But this is where it gets sticky: We don't know enough to really direct love... to manage it. It takes faith to love, because we are committing to a relationship we haven't seen the end of and don't fully understand. The heart of mankind is very "slippery":
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord , search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
If I put my faith to love in people, I will surely be disappointed. People don't know their own hearts, let alone another's...so how could I draw strength from faith in another person's heart? I can't. There is only one safe heart to put faith in: God's. That is why the two greatest commandments are ordered...it takes #1 to get to #2!
Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Many times we get confused about how to love people, because we can't really see all the nuances of our own hearts, let alone the nuances of someone else's heart. It takes God to love. Love is a fruit of His presence...that means it only comes from God. He is the author...the well...of love. There isn't one drop of love in all of creation that He didn't originate. Any true love I have experienced welled up from His throne and traveled into someone's heart to be tasted and then shared from there. This is the way love works.
The world is very confused about love. Love isn't being nice. Love isn't being attracted... in fact, the greatest expressions of love happen when the object of love is very unlovely. Love isn't a two-sided contract or a mutual agreement...it isn't legally broken when one side fails...love is OBEDIENCE TO JESUS. This is the only way love really operates:
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
If I want to truly love people, then I want to agree that it is a commitment to Jesus that opens the door to love. Committing to people themselves won't work, because they may or may not be connected to the source of love. If I commit to obeying Jesus, the natural result will be to love Him, which will overflow to those around me, because HE is committed to love those around me, and He knows their good and bad. There is no stronger commitment I can make to people around me than to commit fully to Jesus. He is the glue that will bond people forever. He is the center. Nothing of their hearts is hidden from Him:
Psalms 139:1-4, 17 O Lord , You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord , You know it altogether.... How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
If I am not expressing Jesus' heart towards those around me, it is because I am deficient in love! Committing to Jesus requires (and if it is real, overflows into) a commitment to those around me. My commitment to those around me is the "thermometer" that reveals the temperature of my love for Jesus:
I John 4:20-21 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Loving my brother isn't always saying the pleasant thing. Loving my brother doesn't mean I support everything he does, agree with everything he says, or go to everything he goes to. Loving my brother means one thing only: loving Jesus by obeying His commands towards me and seeing my brother as Jesus does, then acting on Jesus' commitment to my brother.
Jesus does things we don't always understand or agree with. Sometimes Jesus says "come out"...and sometimes Jesus says "go in"...ALL of Jesus commands fully agree with love, because He IS love!
I John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Loving your brother cannot be broken down into a formula...you cannot divorce the commandment to love from the author of love. It is abiding in Jesus...staying in the conversation with Him about my brother...that gives me the information, the vision, and the power to love my brother. Trying to love people outside of the power of God is a recipe for failure, because it is arrogant...it assumes I can be my own source of love. I cannot generate any love in my self, I can only tap into the flow of love from the vine into the branch by the Holy Spirit:
John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
The way to love others is to talk more to Jesus. The fear of man interrupts love, but the fear of the Lord produces love! Elevating God's opinion of me over every other opinion frees me to actually love, because it gives me more information and great incentive to obey Jesus. His is the only opinion that is perfectly informed, will never change, and will matter forever.
The more confident I am of Jesus' love for me, the less I need others to validate me, and the more I can love them, which is to simply obey Jesus in my relationship with them. Caring what others think of me more than what Jesus thinks of me ensnares me in "managing" my appearance to others. This violates love, because it results in me withholding some part of who I am in order to not be too vulnerable.
Additionally, If I don't know how Jesus feels about me, then I am tempted to send out my heart to others so they can fill it. This is not love, because it isn't sacrificial commitment to relationship. Instead, it is a heavy burden on relationship that no person except Jesus can truly bear long term. This is a formula for desolation.
No one has the ability to truly fill up my heart but the Infinite Source of love. What happens when I am starved of Jesus' affection is I begin to operate in "trading" affection to people for loyalty or affection from those people. This is a satanic counterfeit for love. Jesus loves those who cannot, or are even unwilling to, reflect love back to Him:
Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
The holidays force people together. Over the next couple of weeks, you may have to be near unlovely people...and those people may have to be near you. You can love them without faking it, because you can start talking to Jesus about how He sees you and how He sees them! It is in the abiding with Jesus that our relationships with each other grow and bear fruit.
"Jesus, tell me how you love me"
"Jesus, tell me how to love them"
These two requests will literally usher in God's kingdom to earth. This is perfected love: boldness in the day of judgment...when heaven comes to earth.
I John 4:17-19 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
Colossians 3:13-14 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
But this is where it gets sticky: We don't know enough to really direct love... to manage it. It takes faith to love, because we are committing to a relationship we haven't seen the end of and don't fully understand. The heart of mankind is very "slippery":
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord , search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
If I put my faith to love in people, I will surely be disappointed. People don't know their own hearts, let alone another's...so how could I draw strength from faith in another person's heart? I can't. There is only one safe heart to put faith in: God's. That is why the two greatest commandments are ordered...it takes #1 to get to #2!
Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Many times we get confused about how to love people, because we can't really see all the nuances of our own hearts, let alone the nuances of someone else's heart. It takes God to love. Love is a fruit of His presence...that means it only comes from God. He is the author...the well...of love. There isn't one drop of love in all of creation that He didn't originate. Any true love I have experienced welled up from His throne and traveled into someone's heart to be tasted and then shared from there. This is the way love works.
The world is very confused about love. Love isn't being nice. Love isn't being attracted... in fact, the greatest expressions of love happen when the object of love is very unlovely. Love isn't a two-sided contract or a mutual agreement...it isn't legally broken when one side fails...love is OBEDIENCE TO JESUS. This is the only way love really operates:
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
If I want to truly love people, then I want to agree that it is a commitment to Jesus that opens the door to love. Committing to people themselves won't work, because they may or may not be connected to the source of love. If I commit to obeying Jesus, the natural result will be to love Him, which will overflow to those around me, because HE is committed to love those around me, and He knows their good and bad. There is no stronger commitment I can make to people around me than to commit fully to Jesus. He is the glue that will bond people forever. He is the center. Nothing of their hearts is hidden from Him:
Psalms 139:1-4, 17 O Lord , You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord , You know it altogether.... How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
If I am not expressing Jesus' heart towards those around me, it is because I am deficient in love! Committing to Jesus requires (and if it is real, overflows into) a commitment to those around me. My commitment to those around me is the "thermometer" that reveals the temperature of my love for Jesus:
I John 4:20-21 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Loving my brother isn't always saying the pleasant thing. Loving my brother doesn't mean I support everything he does, agree with everything he says, or go to everything he goes to. Loving my brother means one thing only: loving Jesus by obeying His commands towards me and seeing my brother as Jesus does, then acting on Jesus' commitment to my brother.
Jesus does things we don't always understand or agree with. Sometimes Jesus says "come out"...and sometimes Jesus says "go in"...ALL of Jesus commands fully agree with love, because He IS love!
I John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Loving your brother cannot be broken down into a formula...you cannot divorce the commandment to love from the author of love. It is abiding in Jesus...staying in the conversation with Him about my brother...that gives me the information, the vision, and the power to love my brother. Trying to love people outside of the power of God is a recipe for failure, because it is arrogant...it assumes I can be my own source of love. I cannot generate any love in my self, I can only tap into the flow of love from the vine into the branch by the Holy Spirit:
John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
The way to love others is to talk more to Jesus. The fear of man interrupts love, but the fear of the Lord produces love! Elevating God's opinion of me over every other opinion frees me to actually love, because it gives me more information and great incentive to obey Jesus. His is the only opinion that is perfectly informed, will never change, and will matter forever.
The more confident I am of Jesus' love for me, the less I need others to validate me, and the more I can love them, which is to simply obey Jesus in my relationship with them. Caring what others think of me more than what Jesus thinks of me ensnares me in "managing" my appearance to others. This violates love, because it results in me withholding some part of who I am in order to not be too vulnerable.
Additionally, If I don't know how Jesus feels about me, then I am tempted to send out my heart to others so they can fill it. This is not love, because it isn't sacrificial commitment to relationship. Instead, it is a heavy burden on relationship that no person except Jesus can truly bear long term. This is a formula for desolation.
No one has the ability to truly fill up my heart but the Infinite Source of love. What happens when I am starved of Jesus' affection is I begin to operate in "trading" affection to people for loyalty or affection from those people. This is a satanic counterfeit for love. Jesus loves those who cannot, or are even unwilling to, reflect love back to Him:
Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
The holidays force people together. Over the next couple of weeks, you may have to be near unlovely people...and those people may have to be near you. You can love them without faking it, because you can start talking to Jesus about how He sees you and how He sees them! It is in the abiding with Jesus that our relationships with each other grow and bear fruit.
"Jesus, tell me how you love me"
"Jesus, tell me how to love them"
These two requests will literally usher in God's kingdom to earth. This is perfected love: boldness in the day of judgment...when heaven comes to earth.
I John 4:17-19 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.
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