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It’s been a while since I’ve spoken about love in a bible study, and today I felt like it was time to revisit what I believe is the most important thing to God (Wow, now there’s a bold, put-yourself-on-the-line statement!!)

Not a wishy-washy mushy sentimental feeling that you see in the movies, but the choosing to put God and others before ourselves. Not putting ourselves down (we are all loved and equal in God’s eyes) but realising that through loving and serving others we too are blessed and set free to live our lives as God intended.

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:18-24

God shows us in 1 John 3:18-24 that when we love with “actions and in truth” (not just saying it, but living it) that’s when our hearts can be at peace with God (even when sometimes our heart tries to tell us otherwise!) and how we know we are his children. When we love, this is a sure sign of our faith and relationship with God, and we can come into his presence without worry or fear, but knowing we will find rest.

1 Peter 4:8 even says that love “covers over a multitude of sins.” Not that we can sin lots as long as we love people enough (this is not loving for the right reasons after all!) but that when we sin, God still sees that in our hearts we want to love him and put others first, even if in practice we make mistakes along the way. The story of David is such a good example of this. It is said that David was a man after God’s own heart, and yet David did some pretty bad things – like committing adultery and then killing the husband!!! – but when his eyes were opened to what he had done, he fell on the floor and was horrified at how he had managed to sin against God in such an awful way. Notice that he said he had sinned “against God” (not the husband) because he knew first and foremost that when he sinned it was God he was hurting, and he was truly sorry for what he had done. Just read what God himself says of David when talking to his son Solomon : "As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did… 1 Kings 9:4 You What?? Say that again?! Did God just totally forget that David was an adulterer AND a murderer?! Yes he did. Not because he is forgetful, but because he chose not to hold it against him. David had got down on his face in shame when he realised his sin and repented before God. God knew David’s heart and that David truly loved Him, and so when God spoke of David he didn’t bring up his past sin and mistakes, he remembered instead David’s love for his God and his desire to do God’s will.

From another perspective, love between one another, it’s like having a friend who makes lots of mistakes, who regularly puts their foot in it and never seems to be able to make it anywhere on time, they still haven’t paid back that tenner you lent them (and you know you’re unlikely to see it again). Yet this friend knows you so well – sometimes better than you know yourself! They’ve seen you at your best and your worst, but for some reason, they still think you’re great. You know you can call them night or day and they’ll always answer the phone when they see your name pop up on the screen. And, although they ruined your best top by accidentally squirting ketchup down it, and snapped at you last week when they were tired, you forgive them every single time. Why? Because none of that other stuff really matters when love is at the centre of your friendship.

Do you see? Love can cover over all the other stuff, it doesn’t make any of it right, but when you know that someone genuinely loves you and cares about you (and you love them too), the other stuff may be sooo annoying and also quite painful at times, but you choose to forgive, not because you have to, but because you love them and you want to be back in that right relationship with them.

When we love one another, we can be united, despite our differences and the mistakes that we make. When we love we can forgive and choose to re-build relationships, rather than allowing them to be destroyed by an argument or misunderstanding. This brings glory to God, and shows others who He is!

When we love God we can also forgive ourselves when we mess up because we understand that God doesn’t want to punish us or make us suffer. Having a loving relationship with God gives us the freedom to come to Him quickly when we sin, to ask for forgiveness and be straight back in that right relationship with our loving father, knowing he will never hold it against us.

Love also helps us not to sin, because we do not want to hurt those we love, especially when they’ve loved us, and forgiven us so unconditionally.

Jesus replied: " ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39

The thing about love is: Love is the greatest thing we can do!

…That is why I believe love is the most important thing to God.

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is

love

1 Corinthians 13:13

 ¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

 ¹⁴ To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. ¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸ He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. Deuteronomy 10:12-20

 I’d like to start with understanding the word "fear" in this context. If we came face to face with God I reckon we would be on our knees, probably trembling too, but I think mainly in response to God’s glory and awesomeness. Fear often has a bad connotation, we think of being scared of being hurt or beaten or abused, but God will not do any of these things to us. If you can’t quite get your head around "good" fear, think about the word "respect;" respecting God because of who He is, how awesome and great and mighty and loving. There’s nothing to despise about God as he is always good and faithful, yet he’s still God and we are not! We need to remember he’s not there to serve us and answer our prayers and make life easier for us, like some sort of servant. We are there to serve him out of reverence and respect. Because it’s "clicked" that God is God and He is bigger and more powerful than we could ever imagine, and being God, He is free to will and to do whatever he chooses.

 Great, Mighty, Awesome… we cannot claim to be any of these things, yet sometimes we make ourselves and our desires to be more important than serving & loving God (who is all these things!). Fearing God is knowing that it’s His will not ours that should be done in our lives.

This is an Old Testament passage, talking to the nation of Israel (the Jews) who were God’s chosen people. Since Jesus, we too are God’s chosen people as Jesus has reconciled us to God even though we are Gentiles (non-Jews). We come together to form God’s people from every tribe, tongue and nation! So when we read this we need to remember that this was written before Jesus, but also that as God’s people what God desires from us is the same as what God asked from them: Fear the Lord, Walk in his ways, Love Him, Serve Him with all our hearts & souls. Observe his commands.

Why does God desire us to do these things? Verse 13… "For our own good".

 God reminds us of  Who He is – the heavens belong to him, "even the highest heavens". "The earth belongs to him and everything in it". Yet he tells us that even though he is God (please don’t forget it), and he can do whatever he wants with His heavens & His earth and everything on it (which is also all his by the way, created by Him for Himself) (Colossians 1:16), his choice is to love his people and be faithful to them no matter what. Not to Lord it over everyone and everything he made like some power-crazy king, no, God in all His goodness choses not to over-power us and force us into action, instead he choses to love us into obedience. His desire is that in loving us and pouring out his grace and mercy, we would love him in return and choose to turn to him and away from our sin and selfishness.

 What is our response to God’s love? It should be to get our hearts right. Verse 16.. "circumcise your hearts"

 God reminds us that he is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, he’s fair ("shows not partiality") and he’s just ("accepts no bribes") He cares about orphans ("fatherless"), "widows" and foreigners ("aliens"), basically all those who are vulnerable / without family / needing to be taken care of.

Because these people are in God’s heart, we too should love them and look after them out of the overflow of the love God has already given us. He reminds Israel that they were aliens, wandering in the desert with no home. We too were aliens, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God! (1 Peter 2:10) We were strangers to God, and yet through Jesus, God has chosen us and accepted us and adopted us into his family (Ephesians 1:5)!

How great is our God!

Why would we not respect God and want to love him, follow him and live each day for his glory and his praise, when he has been so good to us?

We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1:3

When I read this passage it made me think about my motivation for doing things. We can all work, labour and endure to a certain extent, but when our motivations are in the wrong place then it’s all rather pointless.

“work produced by FAITH”

Each one of us goes to work with the faith that our employers will pay us, otherwise we wouldn’t go. Here the work spoken about isn’t worldly work, it’s Godly work, but the same sort of principle applies. We work for the Lord because of our faith in Jesus, we believe in His name. We know that Christ has already done everything required on the cross, taken all our sin and replaced it with his righteousness, so we do not work not to earn salvation or to try to please God. Our faith in Christ produces good works because we are eager to serve the Lord in whom we have put our trust. We also know that he has promised heavenly rewards for the works we do, rewards which are eternal.

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. Matthew 16:27

Are your works produced by faith alone, or do you still feel that you need to earn God / man’s approval? Ask God to show you what your motivation is for the good works you do.

“labor prompted by LOVE”
I see labour as something that takes a lot of energy and time, and we often ache quite a bit after we’ve laboured for a while! Like a woman giving birth, there can be a lot of pain and struggle involved, but it’s worth it because something amazing will come from it! Therefore labour prompted by love is the only way. If we labour for any other reason, we will get tired, de-motivated and probably quite bitter, we will wonder “why on earth am I putting all of this effort in?” Yet when we are prompted by love – mainly by God’s love for us (which shows us how to love Him and others in return) then we see that this labour of love is so worth it! Love should be our inspiration, our motivation and the reason behind why we “stick at” things and “press on” when others may just give up. Labour prompted by love causes us not to lose heart, as the love of Christ compels us to carry on, even when the going is tough.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 2 Corinthians 5:14

What do you see yourself labouring on at the moment? Is it a labour prompted by love?

“Endurance inspired by HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ”
When the going gets tough! That’s when we need endurance. It’s easy to be “fair weather Christians” but when the storms of life come, it’s then that we see whether we do have our hope set in Christ. Our hope must be in Him or we will soon be shaken by the troubles of this world. Hope in anything else will cause us to wobble, because it does not and will not last.

Our hope is for now – Jesus is with us and will help us through any and every circumstance we face, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our hope is for the future – one day soon Jesus will return and we will see His glory in full, and we will be with Him.

We know that Christ came to earth to walk in our shoes and to face all the things that we face, but also he endured a horrifying death on the cross because of his love for us. Death, however, could not defeat him and he conquered death and rose again to give us this eternal hope in Him! Whatever we have to endure in this lifetime Jesus understands, he’s been there and he’s been through the worst thing imaginable, yet blessed those who were responsible – asking God to forgive them. This is such an inspiration for us; to faithfully endure when times are tough! Surely with this amazing role model, and the wonderful hope we have in Him, we can stand firm against anything that life throws at us, in full assurance of who we are in Christ and the battle He has already won on our behalf! And what a blessing we will receive when we meet him face to face having endured to the very end. What a hope we have in Jesus!

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12

What do you tend to put your hope in when things get tough? Who/what do you lean on? Is Jesus your rock? Do you have your hope set fully on Him? If not, ask God to help you give Jesus his rightful place at the centre of your life.

Isn’t it interesting that all God’s motivators are positive? God doesn’t motivate us using guilt, shame, threats or obligation (although others my try to put these things on us). He chooses instead to use things like Hope and Faith and above all, his wonderful Love, to steer us in the right direction!

We are so blessed to have such a loving heavenly father!

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

Here is a summary of my reflection for today, if you don’t have time to read anything else just read these 3 lines:

God’s love is perfect.

Perfect love drives out fear.

Therefore we can live our lives, in Christ, without fear.

That’s it, you can stop reading now if you like J

Ah, you’re still with me J OK let me expand a little then..

We should have no fear of death, no fear of life, no fear of the future, no fear of sickness, no fear of other people or their opinions, no fear of the evil one …or even of God’s wrath, if we believe we are saved in Christ Jesus as a result of God’s love. On the cross Jesus paid the price for our rebellion against him, because of his love for us, so we no longer need to be afraid if we are in Christ Jesus:

"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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

John 3:16-17

Jesus was sent by God as our salvation, he wasn’t out to condemn (or punish) us, but to love us, so that we may walk in freedom and forgiveness… and without fear !

Romans 8:38-39 says “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, if nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s perfect love, why then should we fear anything in all creation? God’s love drives out all our fears as we choose to trust in Him and learn to know him as our mighty God and our faithful and loving father.

I know often people have bad examples of father figures growing up, so saying that God is our father doesn’t necessarily bring to mind the feeling of safety, acceptance, security and unconditional love that every little child should feel when in the strong arms of their Dad. Yet we must realise that God’s love is perfect, a true heavenly father’s love. God won’t ever let us down. We can always feel safe, accepted, secure and truly loved by Him. When we are secure in His love, whatever situation/circumstance comes our way, we should have no fear because we know God is with us.

Isaiah 41:10 puts it so well:

“So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

And however “grown up” we get, his arms are always big enough to carry us through the hard times, and he’s always there to walk beside us through the good times.

Praise God for his Perfect Love in Christ Jesus !

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. 1 John 3:14

(more…)

Do everything in love
(1 Corinthians 16:14)

This very short verse which, if put into practice, could have an amazing impact on our lives, our relationships, our work and our relationship with God. “Do everything in love.” It’s so simple.

We can have so many views on what love is and what the world tells us love is, so lets see how the bible defines love.

In 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 it says “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Love is a tough thing to do!!

The bible says that “God is love” (1John4:8), he ticks every single one of the boxes every single time. So much so that Jesus chose to come and live life as a man on earth, giving up all his appearance of glory and roughing it with us humans. His life on earth was perfect and everything he did was in love. He even died in love, knowing that this was what would save us from our sins.

What a great role model we have in Jesus – he showed us what it looks like to “do everything in love.” It’s not about being a push-over, Jesus certainly wasn’t, it’s not about agreeing with everyone and not standing up for what is right. It’s about doing what’s best for others and responding to everyone in love, no matter what they’ve done to you/someone else. Love is a choice, it’s a commitment, it’s letting other’s needs and feelings come before your own. Yet it’s also correcting (2Tim4:2) rather than letting people go down the wrong path, it’s warning (1 Thes5:14) when you know that someone’s actions could cause them/others harm. Yet it’s doing all these things with the right motivation – not to boast or be proud or to put yourself first. Not because people annoy you or you think you are better than them, but because you love them and want the best for them.

As it says in the verse above, love is patient and kind. Love isn’t easily angered. We can be so impatient with people who don’t see things our way, we can be quick to get angry when someone does something which upsets us and we can be unkind to those people who really need a little kindness. We should seek to protect, not expose, to trust even if we feel we could get hurt, we should cling to hope even in difficult situations and persevere when it would be easier just to give up on someone.

I pray that each one of us will be able to remember this short verse and to use it in our everyday lives to test our actions and our words. To stop just for a few seconds and consider…

“Am I saying this in love or for my own gain?”
“Am I doing this in love or do I have ulterior motives?”
“Am I reacting out of hurt, or am I responding in love?”
“How should I handle this situation differently, if I really want to do everything in love?”

1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts always set aside Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to communicate Jesus with the people around me and how to use my whole life as a witness. We’ve been focusing on this in our Bible study group and have had some very real challenges about this at church.

Ultimately, we want people that we come into contact with to experience the love of Christ through us. This should happen in the way we talk to them, serve them and interact with them.

To interact with “gentleness and respect” we need to remember simple things like remembering people’s names and details about them (this applies as we’re getting to know neighbours, colleagues, shop workers, etc) and listening to them rather than having talking at them (This is a big challenge!) Good conversations will be where we explore each area thoroughly and LET THEM DICTATE where the conversation goes (This really shows them that we care for them!!). Looking for some common ground is helpful to establish a genuine connection with them.

Getting to know people, loving them and caring for them should be our first goal. Sharing the gospel with them shouldn’t be our first goal but as we develop meaningful relationships with the people we hang out with this relationship becomes the platform for opportunities to share Jesus. This will be words at times, but may mostly be through our actions. St Francis of Assisis says “Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words”.

When we’re interacting with others, we should always ask God to show us the needs of the person. When we see the needs, ask God how we can show our care for them in their hurt, trouble, etc. Some amazing opportunities to share Jesus often present themselves when there’s a genuine need!

I’ve been challenged lately to use my areas of influence (the places I hang out regularly) to get to know people, build relationships and live out my faith! Otherwise, we risk the danger of just going about our comfy little Christian lives and not being effectively used by God.

Challenge for this week: Get to know someone new in a place you hang out regularly (neighbour, colleague, sports team, pub, etc). Remember their name and some things about them. Start praying for them and for opportunities to chat to them again.

^{How do we learn how to love? I think we often love others based on how we’ve been loved in the past. If we’ve had a bad experience then our view on love and on how to love others might be unbalanced/clouded – it’s much harder to understand how to love when we’ve not received love in the way we should have. If, for example, we felt like we only received love from our parents when were “good”, then as adults we think we need to earn people’s love and acceptance, that it’s dependant on what we do. When I was at school, whatever grade I got, say a B, my Dad would say “Why didn’t you get an A” or if I got an A, he’d say, “Why didn’t you get an A*?” Now he was only joking but I took it to heart and it made me feel like I was never quite good enough. The thought loomed over me that if one day I was to come home having failed at something then my Dad wouldn’t love me as much.}

^{I think people in this world who “love well” are often the people who have known what it’s like to be really loved. People who have had good role models in the way of loving parents or families or friends. Yet all of these people are just human and we all make mistakes, so the only way of really knowing what love is, is to experience the unconditional love that God has for each one of us. As Christians we should be the best there is at loving as we have the best role model!}

^{My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12}

^{Jesus is not commanding us to do anything that he hasn’t already done for each one of us and he’s not asking us to do anything that he hasn’t shown us how to do. God has shown us how to love through Jesus¹ who chose to become a man², walked on the earth, showed us how to have compassion for others³. He died on a cross to take the punishment for our wrongdoings4 and rose again, forgiving us of all our sin5 To this day He is seeking us out to have a relationship with him6, even whilst we were/are so far away and so full of sin7. God doesn’t seek us out once we’ve sorted our lives out and become “good” people, he’s not looking out for the “Grade A” list, he seeks each one of us out – even in the times when we were mocking the name of Jesus and full of sin and selfishness. Now this is true love, and at such a cost to Jesus!}

^{When the penny drops from the mind “Yeah, I know God loves me” to the heart “Wow!! God loves me! No matter what!!” that’s when His love starts to shine through us and affects the way we treat and respond to others. That’s when loving others becomes easier and our hearts change, we love because God first loved us. The unconditional love of God also frees us; It takes away insecurities and fear, it takes away our striving to please Him or to be accepted by others; it starts to mould us into being more like Jesus, into seeing others as Jesus sees us and helps us to lean on Him rather than on our partners or parents or worldly security.}

^{When we know in our hearts that God loves us we can stand tall, we can speak out, we can have confidence and security in Him, we can love without counting the cost – even when it hurts and we are not loved back. Through Jesus’ love we can freely be the people he made us to be. We are complete in His love and we won’t burden others with our need for attention, security, re-assurance or love – because God has provided for all of our needs. That leaves us free to love others without expecting anything in return.}

^{What a perfect example of love we have!}

^{Ask God to reveal to you afresh the love that He has for you. The love so strong that he died for you whilst you were still so far away from Him, and to help you to grasp that there are no conditions to his love. Ask him to help you to connect with this truth, the truth that you are so loved, just as you are. Then ask him to help you love others in the same way, just as they are too!}

^{1 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.}

^{2 John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.}

^{3 Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.}

^{4 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.}

^{5 Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace}

^{6 Revelation 20:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.}

^{7Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.}

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15

This is quite short and it’s pretty self-explanatory, but I felt it’s important to point out, so that we know the whole truth. These words were straight out of Jesus’ mouth: If you love me, you will obey what I command. It’s not just about singing worship songs, praising God and praying great prayers; if we do all this, but don’t obey what Jesus taught whilst he was on this earth, then how can we say that we love Him?

Isaiah 58:6-9 (The Message)

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

God calls us to love and serve one another, it’s over and over again throughout the teachings of Jesus and in the Old Testament too. Love one another, serve one another, help the poor. Somewhere along the line we’ve managed to take away the importance of this command, and made it into an “optional extra.” I don’t believe that we can truly know and love God without having a heart for the things that God has a heart for; and God loves the poor, the sick, the oppressed and those in need. He came especially for those who knew they needed help in this world. I don’t want to be legalistic about this as our faith is not based on works, it’s based on what Jesus has already done for us on the cross, however, our response to this amazing love and offer of salvation should be the desire to put God first and to love in the way He wants us to love. To share the love God has freely given us with others. On the front page of my notebook where I scribble down bible passages and thoughts on future bible studies etc, is this verse:

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

I think it’s a good reminder to me that I need to “walk the talk” and that real love is so much more than words or fuzzy feelings. It’s hard work, it’s sacrifice and a lot of the time it’s down to choice – Will I choose to love this person/these people, despite anything they may have done/are still doing, and choose to put them before my feelings and selfish desires? It’s a really hard one and we won’t always get it right… But we have such an amazing example in Jesus of perfect, selfless love. So let’s strive to be more like Him!

Why not see what you can get involved with in your community this year, you could perhaps even get a group of people together to make an even bigger difference! And lets ask God to point out opportunities to serve and love one another in our everyday lives.