“Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2
Why is the greatest commandment from God to man that of loving God? And why is the second greatest commandment that of loving our fellow man, or one another? It has to do with the very essence, and nature of God’s person. John the Apostle put it like this: “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16) The nature and disposition of God, holy and true, is revealed to men in its most eloquent and exalted form, by the love He has demonstrated to mankind in the gift and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of mankind, so that, being forgiven, man could know forgiveness and pardon for all of his sins. The love of God did not stop there in its manifestation, for Christ, being the perfect, spotless Lamb of God, did by His sinless death, obtain for us a perfect righteousness, which was given to those who would trust Him for it. The gift of the Spirit also was a part of that blessed work of redemption, for not only was the price paid to purchase the sinner from the prison house of sin and death, and the relentless grip of the enemy of God and man, Satan, but the power was given to man to cast off his bonds, his chains, rising up to walk out of that prison, coming forth into the warmth and brightness of a new day, a total new beginning. Now IN CHRIST, being delivered from sin and death, the believer is not only called upon to know the truth of the new birth, but to live in the reality of it, according to the truth of God’s word, and by the present, enduring power of the Spirit of Christ. The coming of Christ to the world, to die on Calvary to save men, was the greatest gift to mankind revealing the love of God. John the Apostle would again write: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jn. 4:10) So then, what about the matter of not just knowing about this love, but living it? How does this love of God fill the believer, and is it possible to be truly constrained, or compelled by it in everyday life?
The first thing to see, know, and believe is that God IS love. The true love of which the Scripture speaks is not only of God it is the expression of the life of Christ by the Spirit dwelling in the heart. The moment one is born of the Spirit, he receives what is called “an anointing,” or unction. The Spirit of God comes to make him to be a new creation in Christ, but He also comes to the believer to be his assurance of acceptance before God, a witness of Christ’s life in the heart, and the power by which he is to love and serve God. This anointing is a permanent presence of God by the Spirit, which has made every believer inseparably one with Christ, in order to live by Him, His power and love. It is as the Spirit as Lord maintains the control of the life, that the liberty of the Spirit becomes manifest as He ministers to others around him, especially to fellow believers. One with Christ by the Spirit not only will the believer not die spiritually, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but all that is in Christ with respect to spiritual blessing becomes his. It becomes his to know when by faith the believer receives all from Christ to abide in Him, deriving all from Him.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.