Love has everything to do with the life that we have in Christ Jesus. I’ve been working on a project dealing with love scriptures, and it was easy to decide what to write about this week. Thus the title “what’s love got to do with it”.
One writer says, “Love is just a second hand emotion”. That may or may not be true, but the love I want to talk about is from the spirit and not the soul.
Love is the foundation of who we are in Christ. The foundation in that “God so loved”. As a result of His love, he gave his son as a means to deliver us from sin and all of its repercussions. As we grow in grace, 2Peter 1:5-8, love is the zenith. Not just any kind of love, but God’s type of love, agape. Agape is unconditional. It does not matter what you say, what you do, I will love you. How difficult it is for us to have that type of love. If we desire the abundance of God’s grace in our lives, then we will thirst for the kind of growth that Peter talks about. We need to take responsibility for adding to our faith, so that we will experience the greatest form of love, not just for ourselves, but to share with others.
Did you know that your faith works by love, Galatians 5:6? J.B. Phillips translation puts it this way, “In Christ Jesus there is no validity in either circumcision or un-circumcision; it is a matter of faith, faith which expresses itself in love.” Faith is activated and energized through love. Love is what makes faith work. Without love faith is dormant. Your faith could be in good shape, but without the power of love it will not work for you.
The King James version of Galatians 5:6 uses the phrase, “which worketh by love”. This can be compared to having a car. It doesn’t matter if it is old or new. You will never drive that car if you do not have adequate power, such as a battery and gasoline. With those items missing, you would not get rid of the car; you would seek out the tools needed to get the car running. So it is with our faith. You have it, but do you have the power source to operate it.
Think about this! The opposite of love is hate. If you are full of hatred and un-forgiveness then your faith is being drained, and cannot work properly. The lack of forgiveness is hatred in action.
Faith and love are words of action. James 2:14, “Now what use is it, my brothers, for a man to say he “has faith” if his actions do not correspond with it?” God, himself, is the perfect example of “love in action”. Love expresses itself by giving.
Look for more on love next time.
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Rosita
