Love Prevails! There was so much that made a strong impression on me during my first NACT. One aspect that I enjoyed, in particular, was the process by which the Body builds itself up in love:
Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:16)
- First, God loves us
“… the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20) - Then, we love God in return
“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) - We also love our brothers and sisters in Christ,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (John 13:34) - We love unbelievers as God does, therefore we should share the gospel with them and strive to bring them into the enjoyment of being in the Body
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
It all starts with God’s eternal love! His love is the source, the motivation, and the way for Him to draw us. His love isn’t just ‘everlasting’- which would imply that it will continue forever from this point in time onwards- rather, His love is ETERNAL.
Jehovah appeared to me from afar, saying, / Indeed I have loved you with an eternal love; / Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. (Jeremiah 31:3)
We were worthy of death, yet Jesus took our place on the cross because He loves us. He loved us even when we did not acknowledge him, did not appreciate him, were even against him. How can we not be moved by His sacrificial love for us, which was given freely in the full knowledge that we may not choose to accept His sacrifice? I am so touched by this true, unconditional love, sincerely given regardless of the fact that it may be unrequited.
“In this we know love, that He laid down His life on our behalf, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers” (1 John 3:16)
“What made You, Lord, to die for me?
Why would You die for me, Your enemy?
You took my place to hang on a tree,
To be a curse, a curse for me.”
We can come as we are and He receives us with open arms, forgiving us in lovingkindness.
“Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot;
To thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!” (Hymn 1048)
Not only this, but I’m grateful that even after we’re born again, He does not leave us in our fallen condition. In His resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit, so that we can live by His new life! Praise the Lord, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin and restores our fellowship with God. But, even if we are clean, we still have the need to eat! Eating is taking in Christ through His Word. In this way, He becomes our life supply!
As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. (John 6:57)
When we take Him as our life, we spontaneously love other children of God.
We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death. (1 John 3:14)
How do we love one another? In John’s gospel, it says that Jesus loved His disciples to the uttermost and it’s evident from the following verses that He loved them in a practical manner by washing their feet. This was Jesus’s number one priority when He knew that He was going to be crucified- He washed His disciples’ feet.
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost. (John 13:1)
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example so that you also may do even as I have done to you. (John 13:14-15)
Today, we should also wash one another’s feet. I enjoyed the spiritual significance of this practice. There’s living water in the Word that washes us whenever we share the truth with one another!
That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word (Ephesians 5:26)
I love the lyrics:
“Nothing could change me
But love and mercy.
Your love, dear Lord, has conquered me.”
We think we can change or correct others by reprimanding or controlling them, but it is only divine love that irrevocably changes us. This is the love we need to pour into our brothers and sisters by washing one another’s feet. No judgement, no condemnation, no analysis- pure washing!
“Above all, have fervent love among yourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)
Whenever we water one another, we are also watered!
“The blessing soul will prosper, / And he who waters will also be watered himself.” (Proverbs 11:25)
It’s not sufficient that we just love our brothers and sisters in Christ. God wants all men to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth.
“Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
We may happily reside in a church bubble, whereby we enjoy spending time with our spiritual family. However, if we become too comfortable in this situation, it may result in the stagnation of the flow of divine love. We may end up sequestering this love amongst ourselves, because we may become easily satisfied. But God is not satisfied! We are the gates for people to come into the church and experience the love of Jesus Christ. Are we open gates?
I was convicted that we do not preach the gospel as much as we should- not because we lack something to speak- but because we are short of love for others. Actually, we love ourselves too much to lose face and tell someone that Jesus loves them and died for them. If we really loved all men, we would willingly share the love of Christ with them. We can’t say on the one hand that we love our unbelieving friends and family, and yet, on the other hand, not preach the gospel.
Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and truthfulness. (1 John 3:18)
We may have our own concepts about people’s readiness or receptiveness to receiving the truth. If we are governed by these concepts, we may not preach the gospel and erroneously disqualify people. Who are we to disqualify another when we ourselves didn’t deserve God’s love in the first place?! We may judge and preclude people, even though Jesus died for the world.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Only God has this universal love for the world. We cannot have such a universal love in ourselves. Our natural preferences and dispositions make us incompatible with others. How we need to partake of the divine nature to become agape to all men!
Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust. (2 Peter 1:4)
What kind of person we are is more important than what we do or say. Lord, make us Your ambassadors in our daily life!
For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. (1 Thessalonians 1:5)
I was so encouraged that even though I fall short of the requirement of loving the Lord absolutely and my neighbours, ultimately, love will prevail! Mark 12:30 states that you “shall” love the Lord, rather than you “should” – it’s our destiny to love the Lord our God with everything we have!
And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.” (Mark 12:30)
God is love and eventually, we will become love! By spending time beholding Him and abiding in Him, we become like Him!
“And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16)
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is. (1 John 3:2)
I really appreciated that God who is love, loves with an eternal purpose to gain His Bride. It was with His Bride in view that Jesus willingly gave Himself up. Love is the way that His Body is being built up and His Bride prepared.
We will be Christ’s counterpart and match Him for His return!
“…Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25)
Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. (Revelation 19:7)
Praise the Lord, Love Prevails!
