I am persuaded…..nothing can separate me from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:29
How can we love well if we are not first persuaded that we are loved well?
Our New Testament command is to love even as Jesus has loved us. How can we love others if our concept of “even as” we are loved is skewed. If every negative circumstance of life serves to tell us we are unloved then we build from a very flawed and broken foundation. If we do not see the value we have to the Father how can we ever appreciate others? It would be superficial. We want to live loved, and we want to live, loving well.
We have been wired for love from conception. Love is the thing the Heavenly Father wants us to know. To live from a place of love is absolute freedom. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. It starts with believing and receiving Jesus, the manifest love our Father has given to us.
We want to live knowing, every moment of every day, exactly how valuable we are to the Father. We don’t want theory, we want a viable, living, experience with Him. We can never achieve this in our own strength and we don’t need to, but we do need to have an absolute dependency on the one who pours this love into us. I can’t know this love apart from the Holy Spirit, His truth, teaching, and comfort. Paul prays, as we are rooted and grounded in this love we are able to know the Fathers love and be filled with the fullness of God, Ephesians 3:19
As we move forward in the last days, we must understand that the love of many will grow cold. This is in the church. The love many will hold for the world will surpass the love they have for God and His ways and that cannot but ultimately play out in the love they have for one another. How does a brother turn against a brother, but by holding a greater love for self.
Lovers of self and pleasures rather than lovers of God are present and in our midst in these last days. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed….” 2 Timothy 4:10. Jude wrote we were to remember the words spoken by the apostles how mockers in the last time would walk after their own ungodly lusts, separating themselves not having the Spirit. His admonition to the church is build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping yourselves in the love of God.
We must live loved to love well. Life must be lived empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit and feeding upon the word to know and understand the love God has not only us, but all. He’s called us to live as He is. He’s called us to be holy as He is holy. He’s called us to love as He is love.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34