Text: “As the Father hath loved Me (Christ Jesus), so have I loved you (born again believers); continue ye in My love.”
John 15:9.
“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God IS love.” (1 John 4:7-8)
Now,
while most of us are perfectly sure that the Lord God loves us, the more
profound question we often ask ourselves is this: do we love God? And if so, how do we prove to ourselves that
we actually love God?
We love Him (the Lord God), because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
The Lord God Almighty is the infinite source of LOVE; and it is His Divine love that has caused us to love Him in return - through the Divine revelation of God in human form, Christ Jesus. Our love is totally inspired of Him.
We would never have desired to know and love the Lord God had He not drawn our very souls unto Himself, by His Divine cords of Eternal love.
“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3)
“When
Almighty God’s love is manifested clearly in the Cross of His dear Son, Christ Jesus - Whom the Father sent to suffer in our place and die to save us from our vile sins. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, therefore, the epitome of true and Divine LOVE. Hallelujah! What a Saviour Lord we have in Him!
“For God so loved the world (elect sinners of every nation), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (trusts, and continually trusts) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
God’s love for you and for me is therefore clearly proven from Spirit-inspired Scriptures. But how can we prove our love for Him?
Today’s brief Bible reading clearly teaches us the only way we have of proving to ourselves whether or not we actually love the Living God. Christ Jesus here teaches us that His Father loves Him; and that He loves us; and that we can actually prove our love for Him by ‘…continuing in His love…’
We ‘…continue in Christ’s love…’ by continually seeking to be obedient to His written commandments; His clearly set forth teachings; living our lives in His Spirit of truth and love. We prove our love for God by our obedience.
“IF ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” (V.10)
The ‘IF’ in this teaching of Christ denotes a condition He is setting down for us to fulfil before we can claim the promise of abiding love which follows.
“For all the promises of God in Him (Christ Jesus) are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)
In other words, ‘Have we fulfilled God’s condition of being in Christ?’ Yea, we have. Then, having fulfilled God’s set condition - we are ‘in Christ’, and seeking to obey His commandments - we can therefore claim all the promises of God contained in His Word to us, His Blood-bought children.
We can prove we love God in this manner, IF we obey His commandments and are ‘…hidden in Christ Jesus…’ Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be HID in the day of the Lord’s anger.” (Zephaniah 2:3)
“Blessed (blessed with blessings) is he/she whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man/woman unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Psalm 32:1-2) (See the Doctrine of Imputation)
“Ye are My friends, IF ye do whatsoever I command you.” (V.14)
Thought: Do we love Christ? If so, let us obey His Commandments.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I invite comments that are Christian in nature. All comments are moderated, and any negative submissions are deleted and never published.