Clearly the kind of love that God had when He sent Jesus, His only Son, as a sacrifice for our sins is some extra-ordinary kind of love. Certainly Jesus' love that was so great that he was willing to come and do this for us is more than remarkable. It is totally awesome. Paul wrote:" Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. " Romans 5:7-8 This opens up the way of reconciliation and friendship with Jesus.
When he was talking with his disciples shortly before his arrest and crucifixion Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15 Jesus was speaking of a special relationship with himself that would insure that his followers could survive and thrive in a hostile world. He knew how attached and loyal his disciples could be if they really loved him with his special kind of redeeming love. Yes, Jesus said: "If you love me you will obey what I command" He is saying that this kind of love will take us to realms of purity, holiness, and dedication of which we have hardly dared to dream, and if we love him in this way, we can love like he loves.
He had addressed this remarkable statement, "to his disciples who were reeling from the astonishing news that Jesus, their companion, teacher and master, was going to be killed. They had been with him for nearly three years and loved and adored him as much as humanly possible. They did not yet understand that His death on the cross would be the demonstration that affirmed forever the fact that He, together with God, His Father, loved them, with an everlasting and redeeming love.
Jesus knew that when the full realization of this was revealed to his disciples by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost they would be very different men. Their love and adoration of Him would know no bounds because the Holy Spirit, the comforter, who Jesus had promised to send, would fill their hearts with this same kind of redeeming love.
They would declare publicly the Good News of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and do it even if it meant persecution and prison. They would be determined to obey Him at all cost including their very lives.
John he beloved disciple, expressed this transformation in his own life when he said "We love Him because He first loved us. "I John 4:19 What kind of love is meant here? He was testifying to the oneness Jesus inferred when he said, On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love ". John 15 :9-10
If you know that you have been "Born Again " Then Jesus says: My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12 Now Jesus is telling us that this redeeming love and its power can be and must be in us in order to fully keep Jesus' commandments. Whoa! How can we poor humans possibly attain to that? Well, God has made provision for us to have that very kind of love. Although Pentecost is history, that filling of this love by the Holy Spirit is available to us today. Without it we cannot love Jesus as we should. Stay with me as we examine this love and the implications and consequences of it.
"If you love Him". If implies that "loving Him" is not the normal way things are. Unless a decision is made and an effort is supported Jesus will not be loved. There are many reasons for this:
First : The devil does not want men to love God. He lies to us about God's goodness and purpose. He gets us to focus our attention on material and selfish things.
Second: Adam and Eve's disobedience brought the nature of sin into all of our lives. When we sin we carry guilt which causes us to try to hide from God alienating us from Him.
Third: The sin nature has corrupted our nature. We are selfish, self-centered, self-serving. Fourth: The world tries to entice us and distract us from Jesus.
So a decision needs to be made. Will I love Jesus or not? Who is He? Why should I love Him? You won't have to look very long to see that he is worthy of your love and see that He is perfect, powerful, and beautiful. But the deciding factor will be that He loves us. We cannot long consider His mercy, love and grace; His sacrifice and suffering for us without being convinced that we are, indeed, able to love him. "We love Him because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19
Fanny Crosby had an insight into this conviction when she wrote:
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell how the angels in chorus,
Sang as they welcomed His birth
"Glory to God in the highest!
Peace and good tidings to earth."
Fasting alone in the desert,
Tell of the days that are past.
How for our sins He was tempted,
Yet was triumphant at last.
Tell of the years of His labor,
Tell of the sorrows He bore,
He was despised and afflicted,
Homeless, rejected and poor.
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in anguish and pain;
Tell of the grave where they laid Him,
Tell how He liveth again.
Love in that story so tender,
Clearer than ever I see:
Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
Love paid the ransom for me.
Yes, we do love Him because he first loved us.
Now this decision to love Jesus carries some very powerful consequences. One of them is that we will obey him. Three times in his very personal and intimate conversation with his disciples he reiterated this: John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. Verse 21: Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. Verse 23: Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. Verse 24: He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
There are several things that these statements imply:
First: We are enabled or empowered to obey all of Christ's commandments. Did you ever think even in your wildest dreams that you could be a perfect Christian? Jesus says here that if you love Him you can obey every one of his commands, is that not being a perfect Christian? Peter confirms it in his second epistle 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge (that is our love) of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Paul said " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." If you don't have spiritual power in your life maybe it's because of a lack of a commitment to love Jesus.
Second: If we love him we will be motivated to obey him. My car although it has 300 horsepower will not go up the mountain unless there is someone in the drivers seat who wants to go. We will not be likely to obey the commandments if we don't love Jesus enough to put Him in the drivers seat.
Third: Loving Him Activates us. The car won't go unless the KEY is turned on. That is the equal of saying yes to Jesus and moving to obey each time we hear His call .
Fourth: We need the fuel of the Spirit of Jesus. My car will not go without gas. We need God's love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This is where the power comes from. God is the source. Without him we can do nothing.
The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit , in his chapter on love found in 1Corinthians 13, spoke first of the necessity of having love. He said: " If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.".
He is saying that fanatical religious devotion, extravagant worship, great sacrifice, and even mountain moving faith are absolutely useless unless they are the result of pure love. There is no merit in even the most extravagant acts of piety unless there is purity of purpose in the heart. There can be no hypocrisy, no pretense, no hidden agendas. Only this kind of love will purify our hearts..
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Love has the very qualities that were evident in the life of Jesus as he ministered here. We must minister in his name and do it like He did, humbly, and patiently with no purpose of personal gain or advantage.
. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
When Christ and others become more important to us than our selfish interests we won't be arrogant and selfish. it is not easily angered, We will not have a short fuse but be patient and kind in the face of frustration.
It keeps no record of wrongs.
It is the end of fueds and grudges.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Silences the gossip, encourages the good.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
It never gives up
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Paul is telling us that the true demonstration of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the presence of this kind of love, that is to say, we need the Spirit of Christ, not prophecy, not tongues, not smart and studied sermons. These may have their place but they are temporary and relatively unimportant.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
He is saying that we cannot know and fully practice, and tell others all of what this love means when we first experience it, but we need to grow and mature in Christ then we will put aside the foolish and hurtful things so that the beauty of Christ and his love will flourish in us.
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
We don't understand it all now. However, He says a day is coming when we will see Jesus face to face and fully know of his wonderful love.
. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The fact that God chooses to share his love with us, impart his love to us, and implant his love in us, is well documented in the scriptures: "Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you might participate in the DIVINE NATURE and escape the corruption that is in the world that is caused by evil desires." II Peter 1:4
What is that divine nature? It is the very essence of God demonstrated to the fullest by Jesus in laying down his life so that we could have eternal life.
What do we need to do to receive it? Make a decision that Jesus Christ will always have first place in your life, then God will give you this sincere love deep in your heart.
Peter also said that in so doing we would receive a gift , the Holy Spirit, the bearer of love. "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us."Romans 5:5B;
"So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in LOVE, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know his love that surpasses knowledge--that YOU MAY BE FILLED TO THE MEASURE OF ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD. Eph 3:17;
Live a life of LOVE just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Gal 5:2;
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory. Col1:27;
And you have been given FULLNESS in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. Col 2:10
The two greatest privileges that mankind can have are disguised as the two great commandments that Jesus defined. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Actually they are two wonderful invitations.
Suppose a very famous, powerful and wealthy man invited you to accompany him and enjoy his prestige and companionship and furthermore agreed to engage you as his personal representative and provide all the things needed to accomplish his work and share in the results of it. Wouldn't that be a rare privilege ?
You and I are invited to personally love and have companionship with Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Creator, our Saviour and Redeemer. Isn't that more of a privilege than we can comprehend or can ever be worthy.
But yet in spite of our sinful nature he entreats us to accept his offer. Isn't that amazing! You and I are also invited to be like Him in showing his kind of love to others (our neighbor) Doesn't that dignify our role in the world above anything we could possibly expect. How glorious and fulfilling this is!
Can you have it ? Yes indeed! Follow these three simple steps:
1. Consider, ponder and think about the love that God the Father had for us when he planned to send his only Son Jesus, to earth to be killed as our substitute, taking our death penalty for our sin against him. Ponder for a few minutes the incredible love that Jesus showed when he willingly left his glory in heaven, to live on earth as a man and offer himself as a sacrifice for our sin. He endured the shame and pain of the cross for you and me.
2. Realize that there is no hope of ever living a true life of love without God's love in your heart. If you confess your need to him and trust Jesus. He will fill you with his spirit and his love.
3. Make a definite decision to put Jesus first. He is worthy of your love and trust. He will forgive your sin, cleanse your heart, give you new joy and power. He is waiting and longing for your love. Love is a decision. Decide now to love him with your whole heart. What do you have to lose? Make that decision now!
Now pray: "Dear Lord Jesus I do love you. Thank you for dying for me. I do need your love in my heart. Fill me with your Spirit and love so that I can love others as I should. Amen."
Expect a big change in your life as God's love becomes real to you. Soon you will find you are loving others as God planned. As you pray and read the Bible the marvels of this wonderful love of God will develop in your life and you will become more and more like the one who first loved you, The Lord Jesus Christ!
Charles Wesley understood about the power and meaning of love when he wrote:
Love divine all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving spirit
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit,
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning,
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith , as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return , and never,
Nevermore Thy temples leave:
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray, and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.
Finish then Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly re0stored in Thee:
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in worship love and praise.
Dear Jesus, I do love you! My greatest desire is to have your love in my heart so that I can love you more perfectly and love others as you do. Amen.