The Command to Love (Part 1)

It is often rightly quoted by many believers that we are not under the law… though we are not under the law, there is a commandment that Jesus gave to the New Testament (NT) church, it is the command to love as he has loved us.

John 13:34 - A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another

Many attempt to fulfill this command by just telling others that they love them with the love of the Lord. However, love is not just about saying that we love, it is an action; the command to Love is a command to act. The scriptures say that for God so loved the world that he gave, an action. It is possible to have the love of God and not act on it; it requires purposely yielding to it. it is also possible to do the acts that portray love, but not love (1 Corinthians 13:1). Though love is an action, the purpose behind the action most be rooted in the love of God. Some give for the wrong reasons: to be seen, tax reduction, publicity… the list goes on; the love of God acts for only one reason: for the benefit of the object of his love.

1 Corinthians 13: 1 - If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

This scripture helps us realize that we can see manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit in someone’s life, but the love command might not be fulfilled. Another scripture explains what will happen to believers that do the works of God without the love of God:

Matthew 7: 22 – 23: Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Not walking in love is a direct disobedience to the command of Jesus to the NT church.  As Galatian 5:14 teaches us: For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." i.e. all the law is fulfilled in walking in love. So when Jesus said, … “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness”, he was also saying these people were not walking in love. It is therefore very important for the church to understand the love walk from the scriptures, not what the world has defined to be love. Jesus in John 13:34 gives this command, and brother Paul reminds husbands of this same love in Ephesians 5:25:

Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

We are commanded to love one another the way Christ has loved us; the love of Christ is so deep that he died for the very ones that nailed him to the Christ. Not only that, he prayed for their forgiveness while dying there on the cross. This is the same love Stephen showed when he prayed for those who stoned him to death. As we can see, this love does not sound like what is called love today. 

1 John 4:8 - Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love

God is love; this is simply the definition of the love being discussed here; this is the only unconditional love there is. It is nothing like romantic love that fluctuates, fades, and dies. This love never fluctuates, never fades, and never fails. This love is not based on feeling good about someone; it has everything to do with what is done regardless of how we are feeling. This love is not butterflies, but it soars in every situation; this love is God himself. 

John 13:35 - By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

This love is the indicator of true disciples of Jesus. When we express this love, the world will know without us announcing to them that we are children of God. This love cannot be hidden when we act on it; the Spirit of God has shed it abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). We do not need to pray for it, we need to act on it.
 

Brother Paul reminds husbands to love their wives with this kind of love, why? Because this is really the love that can keep a marriage, not the romantic love. If Christian husbands walk in this love, the divorce rate in the church will definitely not be what it is today. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8), so in the presence of this love marriages would survive any storm because the never failing love is present to see the marriage through no matter what... more to come on this in the next post.

In the next post, the characteristic of this love will be discussed in detail.

The Command to Love (Part 3)

1 Corinthians 13:4 - Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (NIV)

Love is not boastful, braggadocios, nor proud! Have you ever met someone that just went on and on and on about what they have done, where they have been, who they have met, who they are about to have dinner with, the designer they wear, the car they drive, how much their shoes are, and the list goes on? Yes? I am sure we all have met at least one person like this. Usually the person is bragging, boasting and trying to impress; love does not do this. From the text above, we see that love does not boast and it is not proud. One thing common to boasting and pride is that they like to talk about themselves and are really not interested in anything or anyone else; it has to be about them, what they have done, what they have, and what they are going to do or get. The love of God is truly interested in others and is not focused on self. 

Obadiah 1:3 - The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee...

Pride deceives the prideful and tries to deceive others as well. One of the primary reasons people lie is because of pride. Why? Because, usually, they are ashamed of the truth, so they make things up to look better. Lie long enough about something and you will start to believe it i.e. the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. One thing about humility is that it lives in reality and it is not deceived nor does it try deceiving anyone. Lying is of the devil; his very language is lie. 

John 8:44 - You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So when God’s children lie, they switch over to the realm of darkness; there is no darkness in God (love) at all. This is sometimes why the enemy has a hold on the children of God; they are identifying with the devil rather than with God. The devil is the father of liars or deceivers; there are no white lies, lies are lies. However, he that walks in love walks in God; the father of those that walk in love is God – there is no lie or deception in God.

It can be described like this, let's say God is pure water, when we walk in love, we become pure water and completely miscible with him, so when one looks at us, they see God because pure water mixed with pure water is pure water. When we do not walk in love, we are like spent engine oil that cannot mix with water; if you try to mix water and oil, you get two different layers which can be easily separated. In the state of the spent oil, not only can we be easily scooped up, the enemy can easily plague us because we are not operating in our dominion when we walk in his realm.

James 4:6 - But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.  

The very thought of God resisting me in anyway is unbearable, so for me learning more about what pride is became very important to me; that way, I can avoid pride, be humble and enjoy the grace of God. In reading the scriptures, and listening to some messages on humility, I have come to learn some of the characteristics of pride. As discussed earlier in this series on love, pride does not honor people enough to listen to what others have to say; pride interrupts people and is not a listener (see The command of love Part 2). Pride exaggerates things to look good or better than they really are. Pride knows exactly how everyone should treat or address it; proud people would often think to themselves, don’t they know who I am? They should talk to me like this, give me this, and exempt me from this or that… Pride thinks it needs to be treated differently or preferentially than anyone else because pride is puffed up.  

Proverbs 13:10 - Only by pride comes strife: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Where there is strife, there is pride! This scripture reveals that the source of strife is pride. So when someone is always in strife with almost everyone, the person needs to check him or herself for pride. In marriages, a home filled with strife has one or both spouses walking in pride; when both members of a marriage walk in love towards each other, strife is forced out of that home.  Pride also finds it hard to admit it does not know something. How many times have many of us got lost going somewhere because we refuse to ask for directions? How many times have you seen someone trying to do something for the first time and refuse help from an expert because they do not want to admit they don’t know? People have actually broken expensive electronics because of this. Everyone already knows that nobody knows everything, so it is OK to admit that there are things we do not know. Pride tries to paint a picture that it knows everything about everything; sometimes, it is humorous to watch such people talk about a subject they pretend to be experts about and in actuality know very little to nothing about the subject matter. Pride is not teachable; a student that thinks he already knows will find it difficult to learn - the pride of their hearts has deceived them to believe they are experts when they are not. Pride is very ugly and is the very thing that got the devil kicked out of heaven.

When Pride is wrong, it would rather act nice to you than say it is sorry; pride finds it hard to say sorry. I am sure we have all met people like this; humility, which is the nature of love, is quick to repent and ask for forgiveness. Pride in most cases would not even admit that it is wrong, it would rather defend it’s stand no matter how obviously erroneous and faulty such a defense may be; in other words, pride is very defensive and finds it difficult to apologize for a wrong. Lastly, for this post, pride refuses to show how impressed it is of the achievement of others; pride would actually down play such achievements. At times, pride would actually find something it has done in the past that is better than the current achievement of another being discussed. You would hear pride say things such as “oh, that is a nice car, but my first car actually had X, which this one does not have” or “oh he came first out of 40 people that took the exam? Well, when I did mine, there were 45 people that took the exam and I came first”. Pride can’t imagine anyone doing better than it, so it does not show impression, nor allow itself to be impressed by the achievement of others.

Many think pride is limited to the rich, Nah! Anyone can be proud: the rich, the poor, and everyone in-between… it is a state of the heart, not a state of the pocket.

The next post will look into other characteristics of the love of God.

The Command to Love (Part 2)

1 Corinthians 14:1 - Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]
  
This scripture highlights the importance of love; it commands us to pursue love, make love our aim, and our quest. This scripture also helps us to see that love is not a feeling; it is something that needs to be done consciously, and on purpose - Love is not a reaction, it is an action. So how do we make love our aim? We walk, talk and live consistently in love; all our actions are guided by the nature of love. When in doubt if an action is an act of love, the answer is to ask if the action passes the checklist of love: Is what I am about to do patient? Is it based on pride or humility? Is it kind or unkind? Is it rude or is it polite? Is it envious? Is it boastful? Is it self-seeking? … You get the picture from 1 Corinthians 13 on what love is; in every situation, we need to go with the action of love.

Galatians 5:6 - For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.
  
As we can see from the scripture, even faith works by love; love activates, energizes, is expressed, and works through love. So love is inexcusable for a vibrant and living relationship with our father, God. Now, let’s take a closer look at the nature of love. 

1 Peter 4:8 - Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
  
Love covers a multitude of sin! It is rather unfortunate how often believers are so quick to talk about each other’s faults or sins. Some pastors actually turn it into a sermon and by the end of the sermon everyone knows exactly whom it is that was being preached about. No! This is not scriptural and a direct disobedience to the command of love. Some do this under pretense of wanting the other person to pray for the person; the truth is that the Holy Spirit knows how to raise intercessors for a person that needs it – he does not need the “prayer requestor ministry” to help him do that. We should not find ourselves picking up the phone to discuss our brothers or sisters faults, we need to spend that time praying for them if we get to know about it, or talk to them directly if we are in the position to do so. Love covers, not expose the faults of our brothers and sisters. It is actually very sad to see when a believer discusses the faults or sins of a believer with an unbeliever. We are one body, so every time we do that, we are only shaming our own body (1 Corinthians 12:12-30).

The love of God covers! This also extends to spouses that spill out everything going on in their marriages to their friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers; this is unfaithful to the spouse, and obviously not an act of love towards them. At the end of the day, this discussions only end up bringing more problems to the marriage than help. In some ways, this act is selfish because it makes the unfaithful spouse feel better; feel better at what expense? At the expense of making the spouse look bad and destroying their reputation – as everyone knows, in the absence of the other spouse, the talking spouse will usually eliminate what they are doing wrong and exaggerate the faults of the other spouse.  Love is not selfish and does no harm (Romans 13:10), so this act, on multiple levels, is against the command of love. I am not advocating not having counsel in marriage; there are however proper channels and people in places of authority in our lives that can help with such things. Some have found themselves doing exactly what the bible tells us not to do: casting pearls before pigs (Matthew 7:6); as the scripture says, it has led to destruction of lives, homes, friendship, and above all, a direct disobedience to the command of love, which is sin.

Romans 12:10 - Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. 

Love prefers others above itself; Jesus died for us even though he never sinned. He put our needs before himself; obviously, what he did for us was not glamorous in execution, for he was naked, beaten, spat on, shamed, and the list goes on about what he did for us. However, this is what love does; love puts the needs of the other person first. Giving precedence to one another is putting others first, honoring them, and esteeming them as if they were better than us. Lets take an example we see everyday; there is only one seat left and two people walk into the room, usually the faster gets the chair. Love would give up the chair even if it got there first. Another example from everyday life is when people are having a conversation; love esteems and honors the other person enough to listen to what they have to say about the topic being discussed. It is however very prevalent for people to talk over each other, and not even listen to what the other has to say about the topic being discussed; this is not giving precedence or honor to one another.

In marriage, when both spouses are esteeming, honoring, and giving precedence to one another, it is so beautiful to watch how peaceful and full of love (God) the home is. No one knows everything, so even though the man is the head of the home, the wife’s input is vital in coming to a conclusion. In many cases, if men could really listen to what their wives are saying about a topic, they would see that the Lord was speaking through their wife about that situation. Love gives precedence; it honors, and esteems the other person.

In the next post, other characteristics of this love will be discussed.