“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”
John 13:34 NLT
“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.”
1 John 3:14 NLT
Christian life is governed by love.
- Why many christians come short of the life God has for them, and the blessing God has for them, is because they come short in the area of walking in love.
- Walking in love is not external compliance to rules, but a changed heart and spirit, showing forth the very nature of God, producing fruit that is visible to everyone.
You won’t steal, lie or cheat on your wife – or anything that is commanded in the Old Testament in the 10 commandments, if you walk in love.
- The Prophet said in Ezekiel 36:25-27 God would cleanse His people, give them a new heart, and put His Spirit within.
- And another word in Jeremiah 31:33-34. Law in their hearts, and they’ll know the Lord!
- Hebrews 8:8-10 the New Testament is referring this promise, as well as Hebrews 10:8-17.
““This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.””
Hebrews 10:16 NLT
.. because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5:5 KJV
- In the New Covenant, we have been born again, cleansed, made holy, God’s love has been poured into our hearts, He has put His laws in our hearts.
- Your love is the proof that you are indeed alive (1 John 3:14)
God’s love, God-kind of love, the agape love, is unconditional and unjudgemental. Every other kind of love has a conditional side to it.
Start from home! People closest to you, family, ones you are “real” with should be where you start.
- I LOVE YOU. Not “I love you if..”
- It is a spiritual response, not natural.
- Unselfish, giving, loving, agape. I agape you.
- First agape, else second.
{ So many people had a broken childhood, many hurts, examples that were far from perfect }
- Sometimes christians learn to keep their outside conduct in order, while holding a grudge on the inside.
- Heart attitude, unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy, covetousness, anger, and lust will be judged faster than external actions.
“Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
Ephesians 4:32 NLT
- Gossip, talking about people
- Using your words to make others appear lesser, talk down on them
God’s love constrains us (2 Corinthians 5:14). As we walk in love, we will never put someone else down, talk behind their back, act with jealousy or envy. “Love does no wrong to one’s neighbor [it never hurts anybody].” (Romans 13:10).
- God loves us because that is who He is! (1 John 4:16)
“In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.”
1 Peter 3:7 NLT
Why would the husbands prayer be hindered?
Not living in love towards his wife.
Your way of thinking, your opinions, and natural way of seeing things will come short, but love never fails!
Way to live in God’s blessing, and victory, is to continue in love daily! Way to have the best Christmas is to be governed by agape. Unselfish, giving, loving.
Scriptures:
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.”
Ezekiel 36:25-27 AMPC
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them, and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Me [recognize, understand, and be acquainted with Me], from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will [seriously] remember their sin no more. [Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16, 17.]”
Jeremiah 31:33-34 AMPC
“However, He finds fault with them [showing its inadequacy] when He says, Behold, the days will come, says the Lord, when I will make and ratify a new covenant or agreement with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day when I grasped them by the hand to help and relieve them and to lead them out from the land of Egypt, for they did not abide in My agreement with them, and so I withdrew My favor and disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint My laws upon their minds, even upon their innermost thoughts and understanding, and engrave them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Hebrews 8:8-10 AMPC
“Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor [who practices loving others] has fulfilled the Law [relating to one’s fellowmen, meeting all its requirements]. The commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet (have an evil desire), and any other commandment, are summed up in the single command, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. [Exod. 20:13-17; Lev. 19:18.] Love does no wrong to one’s neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law.”
Romans 13:8-10 AMPC
“When He said just before, You have neither desired, nor have You taken delight in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings–all of which are offered according to the Law– He then went on to say, Behold, [here] I am, coming to do Your will. Thus He does away with and annuls the first (former) order [as a means of expiating sin] so that He might inaugurate and establish the second (latter) order. [Ps. 40:6-8.] And in accordance with this will [of God], we have been made holy (consecrated and sanctified) through the offering made once for all of the body of Jesus Christ (the Anointed One). Furthermore, every [human] priest stands [at his altar of service] ministering daily, offering the same sacrifices over and over again, which never are able to strip [from every side of us] the sins [that envelop us] and take them away– Whereas this One [Christ], after He had offered a single sacrifice for our sins [that shall avail] for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, Then to wait until His enemies should be made a stool beneath His feet. [Ps. 110:1.] For by a single offering He has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy. And also the Holy Spirit adds His testimony to us [in confirmation of this]. For having said, This is the agreement (testament, covenant) that I will set up and conclude with them after those days, says the Lord: I will imprint My laws upon their hearts, and I will inscribe them on their minds (on their inmost thoughts and understanding), He then goes on to say, And their sins and their lawbreaking I will remember no more. [Jer. 31:33, 34.]”
Hebrews 10:8-17 AMPC
“Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:5 AMPC
“And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32 AMPC
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:”
2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV
“IF I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing. Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).”
1 Corinthians 13:1-9 AMPC
“And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.”
1 John 4:16 AMPC
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