LOVE: Our Initial Response!

"Love bears up under anything and
everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]." (1 Corinthians 13:7 AMP)

Recent occurrences in my life over the past several months have caused me to really think along the lines of what real, pure love is. I'm not referring to fairytales or romance, I'm referring to the type of love that is far more important than that and that is our daily conduct as believers.

I'm by no means perfect in this area, as none of us are, but God has really been speaking to my heart by personal experiences through His Word. I've grown up in church all of my twenty-five (and a half) years on this earth and still am shocked and astonished at our lack of maturity in the area of love.

Oh, and I know we LOVE to excel on the topics of grace, faith, God's gonna give you the desires of your heart... And so forth. But, have any of us ever taken the time to realize that our success as Christians is not in how faith-filled we sound, not in how much we are sinking in the ocean of grace, and not in our BMW coming our way? Our success as Christians is measured by our capacity to love.

If it were the other things, wouldn't Jesus have told us, for example, that the greatest commandment of all is to have mountain-moving faith? But that's not what He told us is it? Nope, He told us in Matthew 22:37-39(AMP), "...You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself."

The top two commandments that Jesus gave us were love centered. This shows me that God values love more than all the other aspects of Christian living. You say, "But you just don't understand! Maybe it is easy for you to love, you've been in this longer, you just don't have the same issues I have, you just don't know anything about the junk I've had to face!" Well, perhaps you have a point, maybe I don't know the things that you have had to face, but I do know the hardships, the hurt, the bitterness, cruelty, and so forth that I have faced in my life... Growing up a PK isn't exactly floating through life on flowery beds of ease, it is just as challenging as any other life. We all face hardships and hurts in life, perhaps ours seem bigger and more tragic than another person's, but they are all challenges and they all stretch us.

I was just thinking recently that if walking in love is just impossible for us to do, why would God make it the top two commandments that Jesus gave us? If it is as hard as we make it, don't you think God wouldn't give it such importance? As I think on these lines I see that it really isn't all that difficult, God wouldn't ask us to do something that was absolutely impossible to do, without equipping us. He told us in His Word that we will not be tested beyond what we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13), which tells me that no matter how impossible it may seem to walk in love in a situation, it IS possible to love extravagantly!

In life situations, people's false witness and slanderous speech can stir you up and your flesh wants to defend yourself, You want so badly to give them a piece of your mind, so strong is the urge to put all their dirty laundry out to hang.... But we have to ask ourselves, is that love? What would love do? Is love easily offended? Is love ready to fight and defend itself against injustice? Is love ready to shove ill-spoken words back down the speaker's throat? hmmm.... Sounds much like our initial responses doesn't it? But, none of these are love's initial response. Love is ready to stand there and let the offensive words hit and let them roll off. Love is ready to stand strong in the midst of injustice. Love is ready to take the punches and cuts from someone's hurtful words, look into their eyes, open arms and speak words full of love.

People, even Christians, will say things that hurt us. They will believe lies and stories that aren't true. But it is our response to such occurrences that will determine whether we soar or crash. If we respond out of the flesh, in an effort to clear "our good name" of the smearing and injustice done, you will merely place yourself in the middle of strife and open the door to anger and you will get out of love and out of God's best! BUT, if you respond with love, rest and stay at peace knowing that God knows the truth, your name or reputation hasn't been smeared as far as He is concerned, and no words of men can change His opinion of you, you'll pass the test!

Love is such a vital part of our Christian walk, however so few of us engage in true heavenly love. Oh, we demand it from everyone else, because if everyone else would walk in love I wouldn't have to struggle with my love walk! But, what a shallow view of love that is.... Love should be our initial, middle, and final response in EVERY situation in life! Yes, even the hard, difficult ones! It is easy to love people who love us, but those who despitefully use us, who speak words or conduct themselves in actions that cause us pain and hurt.... THOSE are the ones who deserve our love even more. Love is the only thing that will break the hardness of their heart! Love is the only thing that can change that situation with the person. The Word tells us that walking in love and kindness with our enemy is the same as "heaping coals of fire" on their head (Prov. 25:21-22). So, if we want to see that person change, it is time for some "Sloppy Agape" or extravagant love! You are only limited by your capacity to love. If you can face persecution and injustice with a smile on your face and a heart and eyes full of love, then there is no limit to the places God can take you! Bitterness and unforgiveness will keep you on the ground full of potential, but never fulfilling it. Love will propel you to soar in all that God has for you fulfilling your potential!

You can't change your past responses and actions in times of hardship, but you CAN change how you respond to future hardships! Make the choice today to respond out of love!

Here's some scriptures to meditate on:

"You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy; But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike]. For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that? And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that? You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect."(Matthew 5:43-48 AMP)

"Because at [your] standing of the test of this ministry, they will glorify God for your loyalty and obedience to the Gospel of Christ which you confess, as well as for your generous-hearted liberality to them and to all [the other needy ones]." (2 Corinthians 9:13 AMP)

"If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord will reward you. The north wind brings forth rain; so does a backbiting tongue bring forth an angry countenance." (Proverbs 25:21-23 AMP)

"Let everything you do be done in love (true love to God and man as inspired by God’s love for us)." (1 Corinthians 16:14 AMP)

"Hatred stirs up contentions, but love covers all transgressions." (Proverbs 10:12 AMP)

"This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you." (John 15:12 AMP)

"If anyone says, I love God, and hates (detests, abominates) his brother [in Christ], he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, Whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:20 AMP)

"Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11 AMP)

"Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others]." (1 Peter 4:8 AMP)

"Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. ...... And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13 AMP)

Endeavoring to Walk MORE in Love,
JRT