A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Jesus commanded us, not suggested us to "love one another." Then He goes on to set the level of "how much" by saying: "As I have loved you." Agape Love. Complete and Unconditional Love. The Love that is shown in John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This is how we are to Love one another. Love made simple by our eternal example Jesus. This kind of Love existed before the creation in that He knew us before that we existed and still He Loved us. God knowing our lives as a story already told, all our sins, iniquities, and transgressions, of thought, word and deed, still Loved us Unconditionally, created us anyways, and commands us to do the same.
"Such Love, such wondrous Love. Such Love, such wondrous Love"!
If the "love of money is the root of all evil" for mankind, then the lack of Agape Love in Christians is the single most powerful force to render us "useless" in "a wicked and dying world." Lacking Agape Love defeats the "great faith", (us being men under authority, like the centurion) , needing to be "in the world not of the world" while working the harvest, and manifesting the Truth of God through the Gospel. God manifesting His Glory with sign and wonders, confirming that what is preached is true.
Looking at the life of Christ in the Gospels and understanding the "Spirit" in which He walked is our greatest example of Agape Love. Jesus never condemned the sinner with ridicule or consternation, He Loved them, forgave them, then gave them hope of a better life by saying "go your way and stop sinning." Sometimes there was a warning "or worse shall befall you", but once in the presence of Christ and being forgiven was enough to "change their lives." Why? Because Unconditional Love restores the spirit and life of a fallen individual. Jesus being Unconditional Love knew this and He also having Unconditional Forgiveness through that Love gave it freely to the repentant/afflicted. He never turned away from any need once the needy one showed hope in Him by word or passionate expression. Fathers and mothers whose children were hopelessly plagued with demons, infirmities, and death all received healing from the Master once he "tested" their faith in His Love and ability to help. When those seized by the "religious" groups of the day for breaking the law were cast before Him the response was always the same: forgiveness for the sinner and rebuke to the unforgiving. (The fact that Jesus forgave them without "punishment" was a rebuke to the religious leaders at the time who needed violence to counter sin.) Jesus was tested on many occasions with traps and deceptions but Love never failed to free the oppressed and deliver from evil the one tormented.
Lets look at the response that Jesus had with the religious leaders at the time. Strangely enough He didn't respond in the normal way he did to those bound by sin or oppressed, no He responded to them with righteous anger ("be ye angry and sin not"). When He made the whip of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple, He was acting out of Love for the Father and zeal for His Fathers house. You cannot have righteous anger without passionate Love fueling the expression of it. Every time in scripture that Jesus had righteous anger it was because the law was wrested to be vengeful and not to do what it was meant to do, deliver. The law was there to "show the way of righteousness" not subvert for violence.
In all the life of Christ we see one obvious practice, Love which set the captive free, for "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" John 8:36. Unconditional Love means unconditional freedom but only in Christ, not using Christ as a cloak of maliciousness for sin but the spirit of Love to deliver.
Many Christians today have filled the roll of Pharisees being judgmental and critical. Jesus said to "abide in My Love", His Love was expressed without fail throughout His life. Some churches have gone so far to teach that some men were specifically born to "go to hell" and make that thought a part of their witness to the unsaved. How abrasive to Christ that must seem. Telling a sinner that they have to be saved, but if there is no immediate response, telling them that the Holy Spirit might leave them and salvation would then be impossible and they would not be able to be saved. Even worse telling someone who is obstinate that he may have been born to go to hell. If Jesus who gave His life that "none" should perish was here I think this would be one of those "righteous anger moments". Pharisee Christians who have no Love of God or deliverance in them. Binding up not setting free. Blind guides.
The lack of Agape Love, God's Love, Christ's Love, in the church has subdued our passion and made useless our zeal therefor binding the hand of God from manifesting His Glory. Oh don't be led astray in that all Christian churches say they worship God but sometimes "you worship me with your lips but your hearts are far from me". What shows where the heart is? OUR LIVES! If we walk in Truth and Love we walk in Christ and thereby fulfill the will of the Father. Love covers, Love lifts, Love delivers, Love forgives, Love hopes, Love encourages, Love never fails........ever! This is the "Love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". Any other practice of Love is no Love at all, in fact it is just "manufactured love" for face value only. Looking good love. Happy love. Self seeking love. Man's (replacement) brand of love. Worldly love. Useless love, that is wrested of Truth. Man taking something perfect (Christs Love) and making it common, unsanctified, without power, lip work only, not of the heart.
John 13:35,
"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have Love one to another". This "love one to another" is not just limited to those who are like minded, but covers all men, believers or non believers. All mankind. To phrase an old expression "loved to death" I would rather it be "Loved to life" for "He whom the Son sets free is free indeed", free always and all ways.
Romans 5:5
"And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us".
Here we see two directions of Love: The Love of God to God by the Holy Spirit, and then the Love of God (God's Love) to others by the Holy Spirit. Every thing about giving Love in all directions that it can be rendered to leaving out no one, God or man. In fact if the Love of God isn't there then the Love of man cannot exist either. Jesus is Love, Truth, and the Way (to live it) that we must follow and be conformed into, as the Scriptures say: "we are being conformed into His image and likeness". We are being perfected to be like Him by the Holy Spirit and that work is shown in our lives by having Christ's Love for God and others. This kind of Love cannot fail nor hold reaction to those who deem themselves unlovable. Again Agape Love never fails. We can be saved by grace because God bound Himself to us by Unconditional Love. If the Love God has for us can fail then the salvation we claim in Christ is void, because it is founded in Love it is secure, God binding Himself to man by it.
Jesus commands us to Love and this proves to each other and the world that we are His disciples. God's/Christ's Love is the power to overcome the darkness in the world and be a light of hope and redemption with "power" to all that see our light.
Let you light so shine that men might see it and live in the Light.
Love
J&E
Jesus commanded us, not suggested us to "love one another." Then He goes on to set the level of "how much" by saying: "As I have loved you." Agape Love. Complete and Unconditional Love. The Love that is shown in John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This is how we are to Love one another. Love made simple by our eternal example Jesus. This kind of Love existed before the creation in that He knew us before that we existed and still He Loved us. God knowing our lives as a story already told, all our sins, iniquities, and transgressions, of thought, word and deed, still Loved us Unconditionally, created us anyways, and commands us to do the same.
"Such Love, such wondrous Love. Such Love, such wondrous Love"!
If the "love of money is the root of all evil" for mankind, then the lack of Agape Love in Christians is the single most powerful force to render us "useless" in "a wicked and dying world." Lacking Agape Love defeats the "great faith", (us being men under authority, like the centurion) , needing to be "in the world not of the world" while working the harvest, and manifesting the Truth of God through the Gospel. God manifesting His Glory with sign and wonders, confirming that what is preached is true.
Looking at the life of Christ in the Gospels and understanding the "Spirit" in which He walked is our greatest example of Agape Love. Jesus never condemned the sinner with ridicule or consternation, He Loved them, forgave them, then gave them hope of a better life by saying "go your way and stop sinning." Sometimes there was a warning "or worse shall befall you", but once in the presence of Christ and being forgiven was enough to "change their lives." Why? Because Unconditional Love restores the spirit and life of a fallen individual. Jesus being Unconditional Love knew this and He also having Unconditional Forgiveness through that Love gave it freely to the repentant/afflicted. He never turned away from any need once the needy one showed hope in Him by word or passionate expression. Fathers and mothers whose children were hopelessly plagued with demons, infirmities, and death all received healing from the Master once he "tested" their faith in His Love and ability to help. When those seized by the "religious" groups of the day for breaking the law were cast before Him the response was always the same: forgiveness for the sinner and rebuke to the unforgiving. (The fact that Jesus forgave them without "punishment" was a rebuke to the religious leaders at the time who needed violence to counter sin.) Jesus was tested on many occasions with traps and deceptions but Love never failed to free the oppressed and deliver from evil the one tormented.
Lets look at the response that Jesus had with the religious leaders at the time. Strangely enough He didn't respond in the normal way he did to those bound by sin or oppressed, no He responded to them with righteous anger ("be ye angry and sin not"). When He made the whip of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple, He was acting out of Love for the Father and zeal for His Fathers house. You cannot have righteous anger without passionate Love fueling the expression of it. Every time in scripture that Jesus had righteous anger it was because the law was wrested to be vengeful and not to do what it was meant to do, deliver. The law was there to "show the way of righteousness" not subvert for violence.
In all the life of Christ we see one obvious practice, Love which set the captive free, for "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" John 8:36. Unconditional Love means unconditional freedom but only in Christ, not using Christ as a cloak of maliciousness for sin but the spirit of Love to deliver.
Many Christians today have filled the roll of Pharisees being judgmental and critical. Jesus said to "abide in My Love", His Love was expressed without fail throughout His life. Some churches have gone so far to teach that some men were specifically born to "go to hell" and make that thought a part of their witness to the unsaved. How abrasive to Christ that must seem. Telling a sinner that they have to be saved, but if there is no immediate response, telling them that the Holy Spirit might leave them and salvation would then be impossible and they would not be able to be saved. Even worse telling someone who is obstinate that he may have been born to go to hell. If Jesus who gave His life that "none" should perish was here I think this would be one of those "righteous anger moments". Pharisee Christians who have no Love of God or deliverance in them. Binding up not setting free. Blind guides.
The lack of Agape Love, God's Love, Christ's Love, in the church has subdued our passion and made useless our zeal therefor binding the hand of God from manifesting His Glory. Oh don't be led astray in that all Christian churches say they worship God but sometimes "you worship me with your lips but your hearts are far from me". What shows where the heart is? OUR LIVES! If we walk in Truth and Love we walk in Christ and thereby fulfill the will of the Father. Love covers, Love lifts, Love delivers, Love forgives, Love hopes, Love encourages, Love never fails........ever! This is the "Love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit". Any other practice of Love is no Love at all, in fact it is just "manufactured love" for face value only. Looking good love. Happy love. Self seeking love. Man's (replacement) brand of love. Worldly love. Useless love, that is wrested of Truth. Man taking something perfect (Christs Love) and making it common, unsanctified, without power, lip work only, not of the heart.
John 13:35,
"By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have Love one to another". This "love one to another" is not just limited to those who are like minded, but covers all men, believers or non believers. All mankind. To phrase an old expression "loved to death" I would rather it be "Loved to life" for "He whom the Son sets free is free indeed", free always and all ways.
Romans 5:5
"And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us".
Here we see two directions of Love: The Love of God to God by the Holy Spirit, and then the Love of God (God's Love) to others by the Holy Spirit. Every thing about giving Love in all directions that it can be rendered to leaving out no one, God or man. In fact if the Love of God isn't there then the Love of man cannot exist either. Jesus is Love, Truth, and the Way (to live it) that we must follow and be conformed into, as the Scriptures say: "we are being conformed into His image and likeness". We are being perfected to be like Him by the Holy Spirit and that work is shown in our lives by having Christ's Love for God and others. This kind of Love cannot fail nor hold reaction to those who deem themselves unlovable. Again Agape Love never fails. We can be saved by grace because God bound Himself to us by Unconditional Love. If the Love God has for us can fail then the salvation we claim in Christ is void, because it is founded in Love it is secure, God binding Himself to man by it.
Jesus commands us to Love and this proves to each other and the world that we are His disciples. God's/Christ's Love is the power to overcome the darkness in the world and be a light of hope and redemption with "power" to all that see our light.
Let you light so shine that men might see it and live in the Light.
Love
J&E
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