The Way of Love
Elevating Our Love
Living by how we feel is dangerous. Our emotions and feelings are focussed on the natural.
Love is NOT a feeling…
LOVE IS GOD
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
—1 John 4:8
LOVE IS THE EVIDENCE OF GOD’S PRESENCE
This is how God showed his love among us:
—1 John 4:9a
LOVE IS THE FORCE BEHIND OUR SALVATION
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
—1 John 4:9b
TRUE LOVE IS TO BE RECEIVED
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
—1 John 4:10
LOVE BETWEEN US IS LOVE RECEIVED
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
—1 John 4:11-12
LOVE IS THE GOD WE WORSHIP
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
THE WAY OF LOVE
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
—1 Corinthians 13:1-8
Being IN God, we are IN love!
Being loved by God is different than trying to love Him.
Trying to love Him puts us into a mindset of doing, structuring, striving, working, all in the name of love.
Our love is best expressed by reflecting God.
The greatest identifying mark of a disciple is love. “By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves.
If you reflect the characteristics of God amongst yourselves – Not the characteristics of the things we prioritize (no matter how genuine) or the things that seem to be worshipful or religious practices (clanging symbol), we are in fact walking out what is His good, pleasing and perfect will.
LOVE REQUIRES SACRIFICE TO BE GODLY
Our Response To God’s Love is our Faith in His Sacrifice.
The World is transactional – we are sacrifical.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
—ROMANS 12:1-2
Reflecting God’s love is changing our minds. When our mind screams out for justice, retribution and human rights, God prevails when SUperntural Love is presented to the situation.
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
—MATTHEW 5:44 ESV
WHO IS THAT?
THOSE PEOPLE….
Hurting people cause hurt.
To Love Those Who Cause Hurt is To Retsore…
- God, help me give people what they truly need, not just what they want. (Wisdom is priceless)
- God, help me stay out of your way by not continually rescuing people from their consequences. (I can love without having to fix)
- God, help me realise that I am also in need and you are always the answer. (I am not the hero or the spiritual guru.
To Love Those Who manipulate is to bring peace…
- God, help me recognize when someone is trying to manipulate me.
- God, help me put proper boundaries in place. (Guard your heart)
- God, help me see my own desire to manipulate and surrender everything to you.
To love the hypocrite is to bring truth.
- God, help me confront with the goal of restoration.
- God, help me confront with caution.
- God help me identify my own hypocrisy.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
To love is to reflect God.
To love supernaturally is to sacrifice one’s perceptions.
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