Monday Morning Devotion #287

Focal Passage for 2010:

“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 (NKJV)

Weekly Passage:

“But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.”
1 Corinthians 12:31

I am amazed at the love of God! It is challenging for me to record how God has been working in my heart, mind, soul, and life. In January, I sensed the Lord directing me to focus on learning to love others as Christ loves me. Through this process, I am learning the difference between having a world view of God (trying to define God based on my rationale, understanding, wisdom, and fleshly desires) and a Biblical view of God (understanding who God is through the truth of His Word). This journey has taken me down many unexpected paths. The paths have not been easy, in fact some of them are quite painful, but the depth of His love continues to sustain me. God has, and is continuing, to pour His grace out upon me. “…My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Through His grace, God demonstrates His love for me by not allowing me to remain blind to my sin. You see, my entire life I have acted, reacted, responded, and made decisions based on a wrong view of God. What I believed was “Biblical love” was in fact a selfish and sinful love. God is lovingly allowing me to understand how this sin has affected my marriage, my children, my friendships, my relationships with family, and my relationship with Him.

You may be asking the same question I asked the Lord, “What is Biblical love?” Please understand that I am journeying through this with you. I do not pretend to know the answers and I encourage each of you to dive deep into God’s Word and allow Him to reveal truth to you. What a blessing it is for us to study God’s Word together and to learn from one another through the power of the Holy Spirit!! 1 John 4:8 says “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” The Greek word for love in this verse is agape. “Agape describes a love that is based on the deliberate choice of the one who loves rather than the worthiness of the one who is loved” (Nelson Study Bible, p. 1933). Agape love is the basis of our relationship with the Lord God. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

In our Ladies’ Sunday school class as well as in the Deaf Ladies Bible study, we are learning to seek God through the pages of Scripture and to see God’s love revealed throughout His Word. We have been amazed time and again at how the focal point of every Word in Scripture is Christ Jesus Himself. Jesus is the perfect picture of God and the supreme example for us as we strive to live a life that honors and glorifies the Lord God. Paul uses our focal passage to introduce 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. Within this portion of Scripture, God describes for us Biblical love. Look closely as we read the definition of Biblical love and see if you can see a picture a Christ unfold. Biblical love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-serving, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices in truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, love never fails.

The very nature of God is love. God’s love is what spoke creation in to existence. God’s love breathed life into Adam’s nostrils and initiated a relationship with him. God’s love prepared a way for sinful men to be reconciled to a holy God. God’s love is what confronted Satan in the Garden of Eden and promised a Savior. God’s love chose an imperfect man to father the nation of Israel for the purpose of revealing Himself through them to all the nations of the world. God’s love sent Christ Jesus into this world to live among sinful men, proclaim truth, and then die to pay the penalty of sin. God’s love manifests itself in the person of Jesus Christ and transcends throughout all of history through His Word. God’s love covers sin and enables you and I to approach a holy God as His children – forgiven, blameless, adopted, joint-heirs with Christ!!!!

My Friend, how do you love? What do others see in the reflection of your love for them? When we begin to seek to know who God is, was, and always will be through the truth of His Word, we will develop a Biblical view of God and that proper understanding of who God is will transform us more into His image. As we are transformed into His image, our lives will mirror Christ Jesus. As we become more like Christ, we will love as Christ loves. We will be able to minster to the deepest needs of those around us because all of our deepest needs are the same – WE NEED THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM!! “For God so loved the world that HE gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).