Thursday, July 16, 2015

July 17, 2015

"And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37-39

"Love is not self-seeking..." I Corinthians 13:5

Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul said, "love is not self-seeking."

Those two sound contradictory. How do we reconcile these two statements? How can you love your neighbor as your self and not be self-seeking?

You must understand the true nature of love and then it will become very clear to you! In the Great Commandment Jesus offers the pattern for His people to love and in I Corinthians 13 Paul shares the particulars of this love.

It is important to realize you cannot fulfill the Great Commandment until you have been filled with the "agape" love detailed in I Corinthians 13.

God isn't calling you to conjure up warm fuzzy feelings of fondness in God's direction. Feelings have very little to do with the love referred to in the Great Commandment or in the "more excellent way". Faith and obedience have a LOT to do with them.

Only God can supply the love required to meet the requirements of His command. You provide the cleansed and consecrated will and God provides the grace to love Him. As you receive His love you find the grace to love others as He has loved you!

God doesn't call you to reproduce God's love in your own effort, He calls you to receive His love into your spirit.

That's how amazing God's grace is! It provides the means to complete everything He commands!

So, love is not self-seeking it is self-surrendering!