Love each other AS I have loved you. Remembering that that love must be sincere.
What is love then? Sincere love, at that.
1Cor 13:4-8
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.
If love, sincere love, is “patient, kind, not rude, persevering, etc.” wouldn't it be true that there is not a single one of this love’s attributes or virtues that cannot truly prove themselves unless they are tested? And, that, to be tested, it must be tested by the one we are to love? Or else the very defining principles that make love what it is, would be fanciful, at best.
So, if it is true, that love is not love unless and until it is tested…
...we should expect our love, patience, faithfulness, temperament to be tested. Isn’t this what happened in the Garden? Would this not be the purpose behind the one prohibitive command given to the man and the woman? “Do not eat…”
We take a moment to ask ourselves…
What is the best kind of love? The most profound expression of love? The love that can be most trusted? Is it not that which lasts? Which stays? Which waits? Which cares? Which is patient, tolerating our stupidity? Which is kind in the face of unsolicited attacks, neglect, rudeness, selfishness, etc.?
Is this not a love, the love, that can actually be trusted? Leaned upon? Leaned into? Relied on? And isn’t that because this love has been tested AND, for the most part, consistently passed, that test?
Why though? Why is this the kind of love that we are to exhibit? That we can trust?
Well, this is an earthly expression of a kingdom truth. This is the love that God loves with. This is the love that God desires to be loved by. I believe we too often underestimate just how committed God is to such an authentic and real expression of affection, care, consideration, dedication, commitment, that our more fully grasping that truth - would aid us in our seeing love for what it really is and we might not be so surprised at what it actually takes to express love - AS Jesus loved us, really and truly, loves.
We, through Christ who strengthens us, can do this - we can love AS we have been loved…
We must remember that the vast majority of the commands and instructions in the N.T. have to do with how Christians are to conduct themselves with one another - in other words - the epistles are the instructions and correctives in living out our proof of being Jesus’ disciples.
John 13:34-35
34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It is that the New Testament, the epistles, in particular, is an entire educational and vocational training on the “loving (of) one another” and having that loving be a sincere act that demonstrates our being transformed and miraculously empowered to transcend our flesh and its desires to love one another as Jesus loved us - when, where, and how Jesus loved us - to make a body, a fellowship, that declares to the world that there is a God among them, that Jesus’ death, life, and resurrection is real, that the power of the Holy Spirit does exist in us - Peter calls this “participating in the divine nature” 2Peter 1
The power of the Holy Spirit in us is not best displayed by random demonstrations of charisma, but by the consistent overcoming of our flesh and its selfish desires, the miraculous power to enable disparate people to be one in spirit, mind, and mission. Amen! This is proof of living a life that is not our own.
Philippians 2:1-3
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind”
The miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and His ability to transform lives is evidenced in His ability to produce love in the hearts and lives of human beings for one another - period. That is what will attract the lost to Jesus, it is this sincere love expressed to the “one another” that testifies to Jesus’ reality, His ability, nay, His desire to save, to redeem, and transform.
Philippians 2:4-7
“3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value, or consider, others above yourselves, 4not (only) looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. 6Who, being in very nature a God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature b of a servant...: and became obedient to death…”
When? When love is actually - patient and kind. And… Love is sincere when love has come through all, every, and each of these thresholds, and (this) love actually, and really, perseveres…
1Corinthians 13
1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
But how? How do we love sincerely, when I do not sincerely feel love?
Join with Jesus, by His Spirit, to the glory of the Father… God wants this for us more than we do. And of this, there is no doubt - as our flesh would always say otherwise. So, let us not indulge the flesh and its ways, but instead the Spirit of God (Gal 5)
Stop: examine, take an inventory of your thoughts and feelings. What words and feelings are circling in your heart and head? Remember, this love we speak of is a choice, a moral preference, an expression of the sacrificial love Jesus has shown you. So it is important to know what you are thinking and feeling to discern rightly how to love.
“Take captive every thought and make obedient to Jesus, the Truth, according to the Spirit” 2Cor 10:3-5
Grow in wisdom - collecting: insight, discernment, discretion, understanding, wisdom - well garnished with prudence. Prov 1;2;8
Ask: God to assist you, to activate the Spirit in you to bear its fruit, but bear in mind, for these fruits to be born, we must submit to the Spirit’s leading (Gal 5:13)
“...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Gal 5:22-23
James 1:16-18
“16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Listen: to the Spirit (this is a type of testing the Spirit/spirit). I ask myself “Would Satan move me to do this?” Is this of Christ’s character or of the enemy’s. Remember the enemy is a thief, not a giver not is he generous. He kills and destroys. He doesn’t bring life or create.)
The testing of the spirits in this context (1John 4:1-6) has to do with discerning by what spirit this person is directed to speak and act - as in hearing or seeing someone, who, in the name of God or calling oneself a Christian, or claims to have the Holy Spirit, whether this person’s message (consistently) reflects that truth - learning to discern by what spirit that is person is being led and prompted. Is this person under the influence of the Holy Spirit or a “spirit of deception”?
With that said, it is necessary, for sure, to test what is prompting me - am I being led by the Spirit or am I being deceived by another? It is essential that we take this prompting, these thoughts and inclinations captive and make obedient to Christ - subject it to truth - to see if that prompting stands in accordance with the truth.
Testing one’s motives certainly involves the spirit - one’s own as well as the Holy Spirit, but this is much self and internal - true assessment: honesty and transparency
God’s Spirit with my spirit
The spirit of the world tempting my flesh or my fleshes’ desire to do its own thing - the testing of motives
“When you pray, do not stand on a street corner - but go to your closet where God sees in secret”
“When you do your act of righteousness do so in a way that your left-hand does not know what your right hand is doing”
“...mercy, not sacrifice…”
Simon the Sorcerer
Doing righteous things that I may tell of it or for the purpose of bringing someone pain or harm
***Jesus often spoke of doing things in secret - not only protecting the doer from pride and loss of rewards, but, perhaps even more profoundly loving, to protect the dignity of the one helped - whether it be purely protective or to keep the one given aid from becoming a side-show. ***
The servant takes the lowest seat, does his business quietly without braggadocio
Jesus was clear in regard to His desires for His disciples to have a properly humble attitude of heart that would express itself with (the) dignity and honor of those served in mind “honor one another above yourself”
So it is essential that we take time and effort to humble ourselves, to develop an attitude of humility toward God and others - in service and prayer
As we do so, our lives will more accurately reflect Jesus in its attitude (Phil 2) and consistency as we begin to more and more “naturally” display these characteristics - we will more readily, almost automatically, act with Christlikeness, humility, others’-centered, protective of another’s dignity - as it becomes a value in our lives, a conviction of sorts, that which is so developed that it is what governs our thoughts, motives, and actions.
If it's good and right and just and fair, then it comes from the Spirit of Truth that speaks only of Jesus… John 14:26
If it’s not good or right it’s of the flesh - because the flesh is always contrary, or at odds, with the Spirit Gal 5:13
Ask and listen some more, again, and again, if necessary
Go: love - whoever, however, God has commanded and prompted and enabled
So again, we must ask ourselves…
John 15:12-14
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.”
This is not an easy love. This is not a “feel-good” love. This is not a love that necessarily gets loved back.
This is divine love. This is a right love - the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, for the right reasons kind-of love.
This a love that is rewarding and rewarded, but maybe not in this lifetime.
This is a love that changes and transforms lives - our own and the lives of those who this love touches - even if it is only a matter of “burning coals”.
