Love!

The last few weeks God has revealed a lot in the word love for me. A word used so often but not always fully understood and one without which we are all lost.

In Colossians 3:1-17 Paul talks about our new life in Christ and how we show put down our old sinful behaviours and set our sights on the things of heaven. This involves putting to death the sinful earthly things lurking inside of us e.g. sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires as well as to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behaviour, slander and dirty language.

Instead he encourages us to clothe ourselves with tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. He also encourages us to make allowance for each other’s faults and to forgive everyone who offends you as he has done exactly the same for you. He then wraps this message up by saying that we should wrap ourselves with love as this binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Now how many times have we heard that we should love one another. But have we really gone and sat down to thing about this word. In Col 3 the whole underlying message is one of love and that by loving one another you will not become angry or impatient but rather act out of kindness and tender hearted mercy. It says in verse 14 that above all we should clothe ourselves in love which binds us all together in perfect harmony and later in verse  16 it says that we must let the message of Christ in all its richness fill our hearts.  If we think about it, isn’t the message of Christ a messages of love sending is only son to die for us.

In 1 Cor 13 we also read that even if we speak the languages of earth and angels but didn’t love each other we are but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal  and if we have faith that could move mountains but didn’t have love it would be worth nothing.  It is thus a very clear instruction from God and the Bible shows us this in scripture numerous times. The question is how do we apply this in our day to day life. When we do not agree with someone or don’t get along with them what thoughts do we harbour about this person. Or when someone offends us how long do we keep this against them. In every single situation we can see in our words and action whether we have love or not or whether we are acting out of love.  Remember the Bible instructs us to even love our enemies. The question is. If we do not have this love, how do we get it. And the answer is Jesus. By asking the holy spirit to fill you and finding your strength in him you will be filled and flow over with the love and peace that he brings.
With that I would like to close with the scripture from 1 Cor 13:1-7.

“ (1) If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and I had such faith that could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. (3) If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. (4) Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud (5) or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. (6) It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. (7) Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”