Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 8, 2014
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35
God’s love is so superior to man’s love. The Lord’s love is perfect–man’s is imperfect. Christ’s love is unconditional–man’s love is conditional. The love of God is limitless–the love of man is limited. Divine love is diverse–human love is likeminded. Think of an earthly father whose love is admirable, but still our heavenly Father’s love far exceeds his worthy example. Our Lord lavishes His love on our life so we can lavishly love other lives.
We are loved by the Lord to love for the Lord. Indeed, we are called by Christ to love with a love not of this world. It is a love that can only be explained by an encounter with Almighty God. His transforming power upon a humble heart positions His disciple to love on His behalf. The parting words of our Savior defined a radical love language introducing the new nomenclature of how His disciples were to love. His command and promise faithfully lived is the best apologetic for faith.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).
Furthermore, our sequence of service and love starts with our brothers and sisters in the faith. If we ignore or ‘shoot our wounded,’ we are unattractive to an unloved world. Those who already live a lowly standard have little interest in exchanging it for another lowly standard. However, when we esteem the Lord’s unconditional love for one another, we are attractive to the unsaved. Thus, a fellow believer caught in sin needs our loving restoration, not our harsh condemnation.
Moreover, our love for the Lord is evident when we do what we know to be true. Obedience to our loving heavenly Father draws other potential disciples into our Father’s forgiving arms of grace. I show my love for another child of God when I honor God. Like siblings whose love for each other grows as they honor their parents, so Christians who honor their heavenly Father grow in their love for one another. Yes, as we are loved–we become Christ’s channel to love like Him!
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:11-12).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, grow my abiding love in Christ, so I am able to love like Christ.
Related Readings: Joshua 22:5; Psalm 119:47-48, 127; John 14:15, 21; 1 John 2:5
Post/Tweet today: Our love for the Lord is evident, when we do what we know to be true. #wisdomhunters
Additional Resource: Rick Warren 2 minute video on Love- http://bit.ly/XK837L
Our new book, The Way of Wisdom: A Journey Towards Spiritual Growth, coming October! Pre-order your copy today. Boyd’s one minute book video- http://bit.ly/1nhZ2bt
Boyd’s one minute video about the new book- http://bit.ly/1nhZ2bt
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The statement that “Christ’s love is unconditional–man’s love is conditional.” is not biblical. In fact, Christ’s love is conditional, not a bad thing at all. His love is faithful and unfailing, but not unconditional…if that were true, then we would ALL go to heaven.
Good morning Yvonne,
Thank you so much for reaching out to us with your very thought-provoking comments. I must say, you gave me “a huge helping of food for thought” and I really do appreciate that. As I have said before, when I read these interesting comments from our Wisdom Hunter’s “family members”, it makes me look into the Word and investigate (and I love that!!)
Allow me to respectfully disagree with you and I do so with the admission that you make a strong point about God’s Love being conditional.
However,the Bible (our Ultimate rule book) does confirm the fact that God’s Love in unconditional. This agape love of His is so hard to wrap our minds around and we, as mere humans, do not have the ability to understand or experience this type of unconditional love (agape love).
Here’s some verses I found that reassured me that His Love is unconditional:
(God speaking to David)
“I will be his father and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him….” 1 Chronicles 17:13
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
His love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34
“I have loved you with an everlasting love…” Jeremiah 31:3
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Yvonne, there are many more verses describing this amazing Love God has for us that we cannot come close to understanding, but I think the one verse that says it all and is a huge reminder of this indescribable Agape Love is this one:
“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
I do see where you are coming from when you say “it that were true we would all go to heaven”. But, that is our choice. He loves us so much, He gives us the choice for salvation, whether we are sinners or not. If He didn’t love us with this Agape Love, would He even give us the choice? I am not sure (more food for thought).
Thank you again, Yvonne, for your soul searching, thought-provoking comments. We love hearing from our fellow wisdom hunters and look forward to hearing from you again sometime. We truly are so very thankful that you are a fellow wisdom hunter!
Blessings to you and yours.
Believing and trusting~
Gwynne