1 John 3:1 (NKJV) 1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
(We are going to be doing something different. We will be doing a podcast called “Practical Wisdom From the Word of God.” Right now, it will be this blog in a listening format but in the future, I will be recording the teachings and posting them. You will find it at https://anchor.fm/bill-kiefer. God bless.)
In our last post I concluded our study of 2 Peter chapter 1 by adding the last element, love, to our faith. The love Peter is talking about is represented by the Greek word Agape. This is the God kind of love. It differs from natural human love in a number of ways. We have looked at the fact that it is not dependent on emotions. It is not given on the basis of relationship. It is not given on the basis of good or bad behavior. It is also not limited. Agape love is absolute love. It is based in a decision. Although feelings do follow, it is the decision that drives this kind of love. Once the decision is made nothing can change it. Our response to this love will determine how much we receive from the one who loves us, but it does not determine whether he loves or how much he loves. God has made the decision to love the whole world in this way (John 3:16.)
I wanted to take just a little more time to describe this love so we can better see how to add it to our faith. The verse above begins with the word “behold.” That means look and see. So, John is telling us to look and see what kind of love we are talking about here. The result of this love is that we end up called the children of God. That in itself is powerful but let me share some things God said to me about this love.
As I was studying, God showed me three things that characterize it. First it is absolutely selfless. God’s love never puts self above the object loved. We know God sent Jesus to the world, but we need to understand that act from two perspectives.
John 1:1 (NKJV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 (NKJV) 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
These two verses make it clear that it was God himself who came to earth. Philippians 2:5-8 shows that Jesus left heaven and took on the form of a bond servant in the likeness of man. It was God who came to earth. It was not selfishness that sent him. He left his Godness to come and save man. Yet in John 3:16 we find that he sent his only begotten son so that people who did not know him and, at that time did not love him, could be saved.
God put aside his unlimited self to become a man. Yet the man he became was his son. I am not going to try to understand that let alone explain it. I do know this. I am a father. It is not easy for me to put down my needs, desires, comfort or safety for the good of others. It is even harder for me to ask one of my children to do so. God did both. His love is absolutely selfless.
It is impossible for us to be totally selfless, but we can cultivate selflessness in our approach to the world. To add God’s love to my faith means I stop considering myself first in my decision making. I stop doing what is good for me first and foremost. I must cultivate an attitude that puts others needs before my own. This is not unreasonable if we are talking about family and our immediate family in particular. However, God’s love does not stop there. We must cultivate selflessness for those outside our family. This includes those who may mistreat us. Read Matthew chapter 5:38-48. Do not read it as a poetic statement of God’s love. Read it as a commandment from our Lord. That is what absolutely selfless love looks like.
Next God said, “My love is above emotion.” We have talked about this already. God does not love us because of an emotion. He loves us because of a decision. We must do the same as we deal with the people around us. Let me just add that the Lord did not say he loves without emotion. He said he loves above emotion. God loves you and me. He feels that love. That is what makes it so risky. When we reject him, he continues to love us. When we disobey him and it leads to bad things in our lives, he still loves us. Nevertheless, he feels it all. So will you. To love above emotion means that you love no matter what you feel. It also means that when people reject you and fail you, you will be hurt. I have found by hard experience that when we decide to add God’s love to our faith, it is a risky and sometimes messy business. Nevertheless, we must add it.
The third thing God said to me was that his love was always motivated to our highest good. This is different than being selfless. God’s love is selfless in that he does nothing for his benefit. That it is motivated by that which is the highest good in our lives means we must trust that whatever he does in our lives or asks of us will eventually produce the best. This is not always easy to understand. We tend to believe that what is best for us is what we want now or what will make us feel better. That is not God’s perspective.
He sees all of time. He knows you from conception to the end of your destiny right now. Do not ask me how, but he does. He knows that what you want is often not what you need. He can see how things work out and therefore, he knows what will produce the best result for you. You must trust him in this. Sometimes your best will lead to temporary pain. In the end God knows that it will produce health and happiness. You may lose some things you know you want and think you need. You may go through some things that are hard. God loves you! You will look back and see that the end of the thing will be worth whatever you go through.
When we do not trust him, we often lengthen the time it takes to get to where God wants us to go. It is even possible for us to never get there if we are not careful to trust that God’s love is always working towards our highest good. Many times in my life, I have wished that God would settle for something less than the best for me. Sometimes I have forced him to stop working in me before I got to the best because I simply would not trust him. That is always a mistake.
How do we add this to our faith? We must begin to look to find the best for the people we are called to deal with. That means we may have to ask them to deal with some things when they do not want to. We may have to tell them that certain things are wrong in their lives. We may have to advise them to give up things they want, so God can work in them to get them what they need. This is not easy. A good parent knows that to give their children what they want all the time is bad parenting. Parents who do that are usually motivated by a desire to be liked by their children or to just keep them quiet and happy. A real parent wants his children to grow up to be healthy, happy and most of all productive. That may require asking difficult things of them.
If I am going to add God’s love to my faith, I must do so by being willing to hurt to bring healing. I must be willing to tell people what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear. I must be willing to go with them on hard journeys to give as much help and support as I can. Nevertheless, I must also be willing to let them make their own choices. You and I are not God, so we must recognize that we could be wrong in what we think is the person’s highest good. We must do our best to hear from God. In the end we must be willing to be unpopular for a time in order to allow God to work in their lives. We must want the highest good for those to whom we minister and those that we love. This is often at odds with our emotions and theirs.
Think about the people around you, whether family, friends or strangers. Ask yourself how you can love them with the Agape love that God applies to you. If you can it will add another dimension to your ministry.
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