This Love…

This Love…

By Apostle Felix

36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 
37  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. 
38  This is the first and great commandment. 
39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 
40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

Matthew 22: 36 – 40

Under the Old Covenant, love was concealed in the law. The Jewish people saw the law to obey, but God saw the love to give. This was the reason they were quick to stone to death anyone who broke the law. The law demanded death, as opposed to love that demands life. Under the law, there was no room for forgiveness. The offender had to face the punishment. It was an eye-for-an-eye situation.  The ability to divide the truth has caused so much confusion in the body of Christ today. The killing of our enemies comes from a misunderstanding of God’s intent in giving the law to the children of Israel. God gave them the law because they were spiritually dead. God had not yet poured Himself into humanity.

5  And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us! 

Romans 5: 5

Under the Old Testament, people were unable to love like God does because they did not have the Holy Spirit within. God’s love was demonstrated in the gift He gave of His Son, Jesus Christ. He came and died as sin so we can become righteous. God forgave people who did not ask for forgiveness.

8  But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly! 

Romans 5: 8

It is indeed a privilege to host God, the Holy Spirit, in our lives because He empowers us to love others unconditionally. The love of God poured in us is God Himself, who poured Himself in us so we can partake in His nature. It is His nature in us that loves intensely what God loves. You cannot host God in your life and at the same time love the world.

15  Don’t set the affections of your heart on this world or in loving the things of the world. The love of the Father and the love of the world are incompatible. 

1 John 2: 15

Under the law, they did not have the Holy Spirit in them, so they lived by the letter of the law, which could not impart life upon them. No matter how hard one tried to live by the law, they were found wanting. One couldn’t be justified by obeying the law because none had the capacity to fully obey the law to the letter.  And they obeyed the law legalistically, not because they loved God. Religious people are overly strict with themselves and others, not because they love God but because they are obsessed with a self-righteous attitude. Love does not regard self more highly than others.

4  Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance.

1 Corinthians 13: 4

Religion brags about how long one prays, fasts, how one shuns sin, how one did this and that to win God’s favor. That’s religion. It is ever pointing to what one can do to be in good standing with God. But the love of God points to what the Lord has done for one. It is all about the love of God. If it is not love, it is not God.

8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
9  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

Romans 13: 8 – 10

Love is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus was love personified and fulfilled the law in His body by offering Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. Love is greater than the works of the law. Our focus then should be on the love of God rather than trying hard to impress God by being pious and overly judgmental. Love does not do that. Its nature is to lay down its life for others, and not the attitude of self-righteousness and holier-than-thou. This is love, family.