1 Corinthians 13:4 “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,…”

Today is Valentine’s Day. For some, this is a wonderful day; for others, a dreaded day. Maybe for you this is just another day. Regardless, this is a day where we are encouraged, on all fronts, to celebrate love.

While it may be true that “Valentine’s Day” is a “made up holiday,” it is a great opportunity to express our love.

We would all agree that love is a good thing. In a previous devotion, we highlighted the fact that “God is Love”. All true love begins with God.

What kind of love?

As believers who continually experience God’s love, it is clear that scripture calls us to the action of love.

We are exhorted to love God (Matthew 22:36-37). In the same passage, Jesus calls His followers to love their neighbors. I believe that this command includes loving our brothers and sisters in Christ (John 13:33-34), and loving the lost. In fact, in Matthew 5:43-44 Jesus calls his disciples to love their enemy!

While much of the love that will be celebrated today is a surface level, superficial kind of love, the love that God calls us to is a much deeper, more significant kind of love.

Agape Love

The Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth and instructs them concerning this thing of love. In the KJV, we read this word charity; other versions simply use the word love. These are both good translations of the Greek word agape.

In the Enduring Word Commentary, David Guzik writes “[Agape] is a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves; it does not love in order to receive.” ¹

One of the things that we learn about agape love is that it involves a choice. Loving with this love is a matter of the will; it is selfless Christ-like love.

How it looks

What does this kind of love look like? It is vastly different from our current culture’s view of love. Paul not only calls the believer to love but he defines “What Love is”.

• Charity suffereth long — agape love is patient.
• and is kind — agape love is kind.

Even in these first two descriptors of what love is, we find it largely unfamiliar in our day. While it may be hard to find this kind of love in our culture, this is exactly what we have come to expect and esteem in our Heavenly Father.

Today, as you reflect on this topic of love, I want to encourage you to do two things.

1. Consider God’s love for you. As you do, remember that His love for you is not based
   on your merit or behavior, but on His character.
2. Let His love for you empower your love for others. Demonstrate this agape love to
   those whom you will encounter, and remember that this kind of love involves a
   choice.

<—Previous Article: That Ugly Three Letter Word… Sin

¹ Guzik, D. (2022, 02 14). 1 Corinthians 13 – Agape Love. Retrieved from Enduring Word: https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-corinthians-13/

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Running

Running has never been my passion, even when I was a kid and in better shape than I am today. Don’t get me wrong. There are times when I have run. I’ve run because someone was in danger, or I didn’t want to miss something that I loved. I’ve also run if there was a chance that it could help me win.

While I am not a runner at heart, I do understand how crazy it would be for a runner to intentionally carry extra weight while running in a race.

The Bible uses a race as a metaphor to describe the Christian life. The writer of Hebrews encourages the believer to get rid of every weight and especially any sin as we run this race. But the age-old question is: “Why?”

Sin Besets

In part, the answer is found in Hebrews 12:1. Not only are we exhorted to lay aside, or as other New Testament writers put it, “mortify” or “cast off” sin, we are told why we should do this as well.

In short, sin “besets” us. This word beset implies the exertion of tight control. Controlling tightly. Not only does God’s word tell us what we are to do with sin, but it also informs us of what sin does to us. Just as a runner doesn’t want to be constrained by anything he would put on, we don’t want to be constrained by sin. Sin has the ability to control us.

Christian, Christ’s victory on the cross has claimed the victory over sin’s penalty for us. He now gives us the ability to lay aside the sin which so easily controls us. Paul put it this way in his first letter to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

It’s Not Worth It

So, if we know that sin has the potential to control us tightly, and we know that through Jesus we have the ability to say no to sin, why then do we struggle with sin? Because in the moment, sin is pleasurable. But this pleasure is short lived. Instead of helping us, sin leads always to our harm.

This destructive nature is why scripture is emphatically against sin. It’s a problem that goes back to the beginning of the Bible. Adam and Eve believed Satan’s lie and desired what sin could do for them. They saw “that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise.” They failed to see what this sin would do to them, and the rest of humanity.

Friend, may we by God’s grace “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” May we be free to “run with patience the race that is set before us.” God desires this for us! May we experience His best as we run this race!

—>Next Article: What Love Is…

<— Previous Article: Does God Really Love Me?

1 John 3:16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

Designed for love

Mankind by nature has a desire to be loved. Our creator built this desire into our DNA. God created us with both the ability to experience being loved and to express love to others.

The fact that we’re built to love and be loved is no surprise to those who have come to know the God of the Bible. John the Apostle in 1 John 4:8b tells his readers: “for God is love.” Because love is one of God’s core attributes, love flows naturally from Him.

Then why isn’t there more?

If the Bible presents truth about who God is as the loving creator, then why does there seem to be a lack of love? Why do things like selfishness and hatred seem to pervade our society? Why is there a need for legislation to be written that orders us to act in a loving way? At times why do we question God’s love for us?

The simple answer to these questions is sin. If we turn to our Bibles, we will read the “Greatest Love Story” of all time. This love story includes the creation of mankind by the God of Love. If we take a moment to look at how God started all of this, we’ll learn something important about our nature, our choices, and God’s nature and His choices.

Our nature by choice

In the book of Genesis, we read how God placed Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden. This was a place where God’s love was felt and known. The splendor of all that God created testified boldly of God’s love.

Not only did Adam and Eve experience God’s love through creation, they also were able to commune in a real personal way with God Himself. God had given them all that they needed and so much more.

True love, though, is an act of the will. True love cannot just be confessed; it must also be demonstrated.

In this garden, along with all that God had given them, was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tree was off limits to Adam and Eve. This tree was the only thing that they could not have, and as it turns out, this tree would be a true test of love. Not a test of God’s love for His creation, but rather, a test of Adam and Eve’s love for God.

In their free will, they made a clear, conscious choice to love something more than they loved God. Some would say that they chose the fruit of the tree over God, but truly they chose themselves over God.

Romans 5:12 ”Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" 

God’s choice by nature

This choice to love self over God would change many things, but one thing that it did not change is the fact that God is Love! In what I have identified as the “Greatest Love Story” we don’t just read of how Adam and Eve demonstrated their lack of love for God; we also read of God’s loyal, faithful love, something that keeps coming up throughout the pages of scripture. As much as sin has done in a negative way to us, God has chosen to move in a positive way for us.

Because sin by nature is against God, sin separated us from God. Some may conclude then, that God must not love us. And this is where the question may arise: Does God really love me? How could God love me?

This, my friend, is where Jesus comes in. 1 John 3:16 does more than tell us about God’s love. It shows us how God demonstrated His love, how He chose to express it to us. Jesus, the Son of God, left all that heaven offered to Him and entered into time and space. He lived so that He could die. He died so that we could live. What else could that be but love?

The next time the circumstances of life drive you to ask the question “Does God really love me?,” simply turn your gaze to the cross and remind yourself, yes, Jesus loves even me! And when we remember how we have been loved, we are ready to love like Jesus!

<—Previous Article: Where He Leads Me I Will Follow

—>Next Article: That Ugly Three Letter Word… Sin

Hebrews 11:8 "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” 

Abraham

The story of Abram/Abraham has always intrigued me. This unknown man from the Ur of the Chaldees was called by God to simply follow God’s will and God’s way. This following, though, would require a great deal of faith.

For Abraham, following God would mean leaving many good things behind.

Following God would mean heading out into the great unknown.

Following God would undoubtedly lead to moments of frustration, discouragement, fear. The list could go on and on.

But following God also came with a promise of great reward. In Genesis 12:2-3, God promised much to Abraham, and God always comes through on His promises.

As the story goes, Abraham did follow God. And although he would struggle to faithfully follow Him, again and again God proved Himself faithful.

What about us?

As we move from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and as we move from the life of Abraham to our own, I believe that there are many principles that are worth noting.

Just as God called this unknown man to follow Him, God is still calling unknown people to follow Him. In John 14:6, we read the words of Jesus:

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” 

First of all, God is calling the lost to follow Jesus for He is the only way to the Father. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is the payment that makes God accessible to all who believe. Have you heard the call of God to Salvation?

Secondly, for those who have believed that Jesus is the way, truth, and life, God is calling us to step out in faith and follow Jesus. Just as in Abraham’s life, this may mean leaving many good things behind. This path may be filled with frustration, discouragement, and fear, but this path also comes with a promise of great reward.

Jesus said it best

In conclusion, listen to the words of Jesus:

Matthew 16:24-25 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

It is clear in scripture that God is still calling the unknowns of this day to follow Him. The question is this: will we, like Abraham, choose to deny ourselves and follow God in simple, faith-filled obedience in every area of our life?

Abraham’s story has been written while our story continues to be recorded, one choice at a time.

Where He leads us, will we follow?

—> Next post: Does God Really Love Me?