Month: October 2020

‘We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.’ 1 John 4:16-17(NLT)

‘So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”’ John 13:34-35(NLT)

Read 1 John 4:16-17 and John 13:34-35.

What releases love? How do we rid ourselves of sin and self-love and walk forward in true love?

We can’t do this without Him and without His help. It is so easy to lose focus or be thrown off. The love of Christ and the gospel is our only hope. Jesus came and lived, died, was buried, and rose again to overcome sin, Satan, and death. The Son of God who loved us also gave himself for us. He laid the path before us in His love. “Lord Jesus, I want to walk in this love. Help me put all of my hope and all of my trust in you.”

Reading the hymns of old saints can help us focus our mind in the fight. We hear their hearts exulting in God, worshiping Him, living lives of holiness, and loving Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Consider these stanzas by Isaac Watts in his hymn “Awake My Zeal, Awake My Love.” Does your heart long to love the Lord like this?

Awake, my zeal; awake, my love,
To serve my Savior here below,
In works which perfect saints above
And holy angels cannot go.

Awake, my soul, to feed
The hungry soul, and clothe the poor;
In Heav’n there are none in need,
Their hearts are full forevermore.

Subdue my passions, O my soul!
Maintain the fight, God’s work pursue,
Daily my rising sins control,
And the vic’tries be ever new.

The land of triumph lies on high,
There are no foes t’encounter there;
Lord, I would conquer till I die,
And finish all the glorious war.

Let every flying hour confess
I gain Thy Gospel fresh renown;
And when my life and labors cease,
May I possess the promised crown!

Taking the Truth to Heart: Choose a Scripture to take to heart to renew your mind and transform your heart.

Putting Self to Death: What specific sin is being addressed in your life by the Scripture you wrote? Paul tells us very specifically to put off the old self.

Bringing the Truth to Life: Put on the new self–Christ. What very specific adjustments do you need to make in your thinking or attitude or behavior to submit to Him and apply His truth to your mind and heart?

from What Is True Love?

‘So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ‘ Galatians 5:16-25(NLT)

If Christ is love and to love as Christ is the goal, then there will be resistance to this pursuit. If God is love, then Satan our enemy is diametrically opposed. Life is not only difficult, it is a battle. Just like sheep need a shepherd to remain on the right path and to remain safe, we need to follow our Lord closely to keep from wandering, becoming entangled in the world, lost in ourselves, or deceived by the enemy.

We can see the frailty of our frame and cry out with the Puritan, “O Lord, I am a shell full of dust . . . I am no rare object of valuable price, but one that has nothing and is nothing . . . I am deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state, of the vanity of creatures” (from “Man A Nothing,” in The Valley of Vision).

If God is love and we have trusted in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we know we are loved. We also know that we have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness that opposes love and have entered into the kingdom of this true love. Now we want to know how to walk in it. How do we do this? By keeping our eyes on the gospel and being energized by the gospel:

-the gospel is the foundation of true love
-the gospel displays love
-the gospel defines love
-the gospel enables us to respond in love

Daily we have to ask the Lord to help us follow Him, walk in His love, love Him, and extend His love.

Taking the Truth to Heart: Choose a Scripture to take to heart to renew your mind and transform your heart.

Putting Self to Death: What specific sin is being addressed in your life by the Scripture you wrote? Paul tells us very specifically to put off the old self.

Bringing the Truth to Life: Put on the new self–Christ. What very specific adjustments do you need to make in your thinking or attitude or behavior to submit to Him and apply His truth to your mind and heart?

from What Is True Love?

‘Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.’ 1 Corinthians 3:10-15(NLT)

‘The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you. Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the Lord your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced.’ Joel 2:25-26(NLT)

‘But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.’ Ephesians 4:20-24(NLT)

Self-love not only prohibits true love, but also destroys it.

What is self absorbed with? SELF. Fear. Unbelief. Mistrust. Conflicting thoughts. Conflicting feelings. Ungodly self-centered passions and desires. Anger. Hurt . . . deep hurt. Haunting emotions and memories. Untruths. Success. Fame. Fortune. Self-aggrandizement. The root that seems to be common in all lack of true love is a focus inward on ourselves instead of a focus outward on God and others.

So where is your focus? How do you spend your time, your money, your resources, your talents, your affections? Where do your thoughts wander or even fixate upon during the day? What words come out of your mouth? In other words, what do you talk about or whom do you talk about? Is your focus on self?

Although we may have laid the foundation of Christ in our life, we can discover that we have been building on that foundation with the rickety and shoddy workmanship of self. But God can redeem and restore the years the locusts have stolen and take what the enemy desired for evil and use it for good. He can even use our sinful, selfish ways to reveal more of His love, His mercy, and His grace.

Take a moment to think this through and then pray this prayer:

“Lord, please open the eyes of my heart and let me see the inside. Is there love? Is there hurt? Pride? Anger? Selfishness? What is keeping me from knowing your love and living in your love? I want to know this true love in such a way that I would live and preach the true love of the gospel with my lips and with my life. According to Paul, if we have not love we are nothing. Have mercy on me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Taking the Truth to Heart: Choose a Scripture to take to heart to renew your mind and transform your heart.

Putting Self to Death: What specific sin is being addressed in your life by the Scripture you wrote? Paul tells us very specifically to put off the old self.

Bringing the Truth to Life: Put on the new self–Christ. What very specific adjustments do you need to make in your thinking or attitude or behavior to submit to Him and apply His truth to your mind and heart?

from What Is True Love?

‘See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.’ 1 John 3:1-3(NLT)

‘This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. ‘ 1 John 3:11-18(NLT)

Consider this: The way we FEEL is not necessarily REAL. We are so easily deceived by our emotions. Our actions and our attitudes tell us so much more about whether or not we love than our feelings do. And even when we self-examine, our view is distorted. We are blind and can barely see. We look at the one or two self-sacrificing things we might do in a day and yet the remainder of the day is following our own devices and desires.

What do your actions say?

How do we get to true love when we have been born and raised in a self-centered and self-loving world? How can we discern the difference and where do we even begin? We must look to who God is, for God is love. He is the source, and what He does and who He is gives us a proper understanding and definition of love.

Thankfully God’s love is not granted to us based upon merit. Praise God for His mercy because none of us deserve His love. But we graciously have been given His love in Christ. If so, we know the source of true love. In salvation we received His love, and we were given His love by grace–by His Holy Spirit. So we can:

love God and
love others.

This means that love is the spring of all our actions.

Do you know Christ’s love? Have you been a recipient of the love of God and Christ His Son? Do you know the reality of the gospel?

The Lord so desires that we humbly enter into His love and receive His love. He will meet us wherever we are–in sadness, in joy, in disappointment, in victory. He desires that we know that He truly loves us. And He wants us to trust His love. May we come to Him with all of our cares, with all of our fears, with all of our sin, and with all of our troubles and lay them at His feet and receive His grace, mercy, and love in exchange.

from What Is True Love?

‘For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.’ Psalms 30:5(NLT)

‘“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over for all her sins.”’ Isaiah 40:1-2(NLT)

‘Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their suffering. Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.” “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.’ Isaiah 49:13-16(NLT)

‘“Fear not; you will no longer live in shame. Don’t be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood. For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth. For the Lord has called you back from your grief— as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband,” says your God. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will take you back. In a burst of anger I turned my face away for a little while. But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord , your Redeemer.’ Isaiah 54:4-8(NLT)

Along with St. Augustine we can say that love is ultimate. But also with Augustine we can point out that the good that God gives gets twisted; that is the very definition of what evil is. So even love gets twisted and focused on self. As sinners we are so self-focused by nature, and we live in a self-focused world. As long as we are self-focused, we miss out on His love.

We don’t want to miss what is right in front of us because of fear or pride or unbelief. We don’t want to go through life going through all the gyrations only to get to the end and discover that we missed the point.

A proverb, having numerous variations over the centuries, warns us gently that seemingly insignificant omissions can have grave and unforeseen consequences.

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,
For want of a horse, the rider was lost,
For want of a rider, the message was lost,
For want of a message, the battle was lost,
For want of a battle, the war was lost,
For want of a war, the kingdom was lost,

For want of a nail, the world was lost.

We may be saved and enter heaven only to discover we have not enjoyed the fullness of His love here on earth that He intended. Amy Carmichael shares: “Julian of Norwich [in the 1300’s] wrote: ‘It is God’s will that we take His comfortings as largely and as mightily as we may take them, and also He willeth that we take our troubles as lightly as we may take them, and set them at nought. Yes, for “joy cometh in the morning.”‘”

Samuel Rutherford 300 years later wrote, “I cannot get the way of Christ’s love. Had I known what He was keeping for me, I should never have been so faint-hearted.”

Can you relate to these old saints? We often find it hard to fully receive this love, feeling unworthy, unlovable, or unacceptable. We have a deep sense in our soul that we might be missing the point. But if we miss this point we will miss many of the blessings and the opportunities He has for us, now and in the future.

from What Is True Love?

‘Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.’ Ephesians 2:1-10(NLT)

‘This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Spiritual Blessings
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, ‘ Ephesians 1:1-15(NLT)

‘When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.’ Ephesians 3:14-21(NLT)

‘But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ‘ 1 John 1:9(NLT)

Read Ephesians 2:1-10, Ephesians 1:1-15, and 3:14-21.

No matter how familiar or foreign the gospel may be to you, take inventory and slowly and prayerfully meditate on the gospel. We have selected Scriptures and a reading that will assist you in this. Ask the Lord to bring the gospel to bear upon your mind and heart with great clarity, power, and tenderness.

We want to see Jesus and His sacrifice and see our hearts and ourselves as God sees them. We don’t want to be deceived. The gospel is not merely an intellectual exercise; it is an issue of the heart.

Consider the power of the gospel in your life and its impact on you. Continue to do this over the next few days. Then look at your calendar and mark a day and time, a week from now, when you can spend 15-20 minutes thanking God and celebrating all that He has done in your life through the gospel.

As you meditate on the gospel, make sure that you are being totally honest with yourself and totally transparent with the Lord. Tell Him where you have doubts, questions, indifference, a hard heart, a sense of apathy, or even general unbelief. There is nothing to fear when we are in Christ. He promises us that if we confess our sin, He is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9).

from What Is True Love?

‘Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord ’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord ’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord ’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.’ Isaiah 53:1-12(NLT)

‘But— When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.’ Titus 3:4-7(NLT)

‘This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.’ 1 Timothy 1:15-17(NLT)

True love is at the very heart of the gospel and the gospel is the manifestation of God’s love. The gospel is the ultimate act of love. It is only through the gospel we come to receive this true love. We have been given the capacity to know true love, enjoy true love, live in true love, and give true love in Christ.

What is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that someone has taken the blame and the penalty on our behalf for all of our offenses against God. What is the penalty for sin? Death, the wrath of God, eternal torment and separation from God in hell. Jesus, the only someone who could pay for our sin, stepped up, stood in our place, and took ALL the penalty we deserved. Jesus, perfect, without any sin, fully God and fully man, laid down His life for us. He who was without sin took ALL of our sin, ALL of our wretchedness, and ALL of our WRONGNESS upon himself and in exchange gave us His holiness, His character, and His RIGHTEOUSNESS.

The one who laid His life down wants you to know this kind of love, receive it, experience it, live in it, and give it to others.

Have you received this love? If you know you have received God’s forgiveness and you have trusted in Christ and His love, the next thing we want to ask you to do right now is to pray this short prayer before you go any further: “Lord I ask you to open my ears to hear your Word, open my eyes to see you and your truth, and open my heart to respond to all you show me. Help me understand and receive your true love and grasp more of what you have done for me and be able to live in your true love. Amen.”

God’s love for you is the ultimate love. Comprehending and receiving and believing His true love is essential and foundational for who we are, our relationship with Christ, and absolutely everything we do in every part of our lives. And we are to walk in His love for us moment by moment.

from What Is True Love?

‘And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.’ Romans 5:5-11(NLT)

‘Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.’ 1 John 4:7-10(NLT)

‘When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.’ Ephesians 3:14-19(NLT)

‘My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ‘ Galatians 2:20(NLT)

If true love really is the ultimate goal, don’t we want to know what it looks like and how we can attain to it? The question might cross our minds, Can we know true love?

If God is love,

and God commands us to love Him,

and God, by grace, has poured His love out in our hearts through Christ in our salvation,

then we can conclude that the answer is yes—a resounding YES!

We have been given the capacity to know true love, enjoy true love, live in true love, and give true love. If God himself is love, then He is not only our example and standard for love, but He himself is our source as well.

But are there obstacles that might stand in our way?

Unbelief? Hurt? Betrayal? Mistrust? Apathy? Career? Home? Popularity? Fear? Unworthiness? Failure? Think this through today while you are at work, at home, driving . . . then go to the Lord in prayer and share what you discovered. If you don’t feel as though anything is standing in your way, but sense you aren’t as close as you want to be, share that with the Lord as well.

from What Is True Love?

‘But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ‘ 1 John 4:8-9(NLT)

‘Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”’ John 13:35(NLT)

‘“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ‘ Deuteronomy 6:4-5(NLT)

‘The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”’ Luke 10:27-29(NLT)

Love Is the Greatest
‘If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.’ 1 Corinthians 13:1-13(NLT)

All of our hearts long for love whether we know it or not. We were literally made to love. God is love. Do you long to know the true love of God? Then do you long to truly love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength in return?

But what is true love? The very word takes on so many meanings. We can say in one breath, “I love coffee. I love my spouse. I love Jesus.” How can we know what true love really is? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Does it even matter?

True love is more than a sensation, a feeling, a mission, or even a doctrine. True love is a genuine desire for the well-being of another. True love that brings glory to God is the very purpose of life and the existence of the church.

Some will say that missions is the ultimate goal of the church: “The supreme task of the Church is the evangelization of the world. The mission of the church is missions” (Oswald J. Smith).

Others will say it is worship: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever” (John Piper).

I suggest to you that love is ultimate and that missions and worship are the outgrowth of that love. God commands His people to love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. Jesus reiterates this, telling us that the first and greatest commandment is that we are to love the Lord our God with ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, ALL of our mind, and ALL of our strength. ALL meaning ALL. Later He tells us that all men will know that we are His disciples by our love for one another. Then Paul explains in his letter to the Corinthians that faith, hope, and love are all lasting virtues, but the greatest of these three is love. According to God, Jesus, and Paul love appears to be the ultimate goal for us and therefore the church.

from What Is True Love?