Choose Love (27 page)

We Must Respond to Jesus’ Great Commandment

Jesus told us we are to live in His love by keeping His commandments, and when we do that we will find joy (John 15:9-11). Our greatest priority in loving Him is to obey His commandment to “
love one another
”
as He loves us
(John 15:12). Jesus proved His love for us by suffering unbearable torture and an agonizing death and taking the consequences of our collective sins on Himself. Could you or I make such a sacrifice? Is God requiring that from us? No. That’s because He already did it. It’s done. He accomplished it.

We don’t have to do what Jesus did, but He
is
asking us to lay down our lives for Him by loving others. And we are far from effective in doing that without the enablement of His Holy Spirit. He, after all, is the one who pours God’s love into us when we open our hearts up to Him. But we should always be led by Him in the ways we show His love—now our love also—to others.

We Show Love for Others When We Pray for Them

The first and best way to show love for others is by praying for them. Prayer is one of our greatest gifts of love to people, and most of us don’t give it often enough. We can be stingy in that way. It is a gift we
always
have with us, and while it has great value, it costs us only a small amount of time.

The truth is, we grow to love those for whom we wholeheartedly pray
.

Amazing things happen when we pray for others, and it not only happens for them but for
us
as well. Every time we pray for someone, God gives us His heart of love for that person. That’s because we are spending time with the God of love, and there is a remarkable transference of love between His heart and ours.

The closer you walk with God and the more time you spend with Him, the sooner your heart aligns with His until His heart of love becomes yours as well
.

God wants us to love people enough to tell them about Him, but we must pray first for an open heart in that person. Or that we know the appropriate time. We can’t wait for what seems like the
perfect
time because that may never come. And what seems like an imperfect time to us may be the perfect time in God’s eyes. That’s why we have to ask Him to lead us to who needs to be touched by His love. Rushing in to speak to someone without prayer can do more damage than good.

Love Our Enemies Too? You’ve Got to Be Kidding!

When we study the words, instructions, and commands of Jesus concerning how we are to love others, we soon realize there is no way we can do this on our own. He wants us to go way beyond what we can naturally do.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you,
love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you,
and
pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
…
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect
” (Matthew 5:43-44,46,48).

Again, I say, this is impossible on our own—not a chance of that happening by ourselves. But with God all things are possible. When Jesus says to be perfect the way God is perfect, He is talking about when we love others the way He does.

God’s love for us doesn’t mean He gives us everything we want whenever we want it. That would not be good for us. So, too, our giving to others doesn’t mean giving them whatever they want whenever they want it. That is not good for them either. But how do we reconcile this with the verse that says to give whatever anyone asks of you (Matthew 5:42)?

Jesus knows we can’t do this on our own, but we can love others with the
perfect love
He puts in us, and as His Spirit leads us.

Jesus also taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.
And
whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two
.
Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away
” (Matthew 5:38-42).

Who can do that?

Are we to allow what might be a dangerous person to hit us, or bring a lawsuit against us, or take away our clothes? If we lend to all who ask without expecting repayment, and give whatever anyone could ever ask of us, would we not soon be broke, homeless, naked, or dead?

We don’t have to invite murderers and rapists into our house and give them access to our children and let them sleep in our bed, but we can pray for them to know the truth of God’s Word and our heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Just praying that someone evil will come to know the Lord is a big step of love for most of us. There are people who have a calling to minister to dangerous people, and God enables them to do it. Listen to the Holy Spirit for
your
calling, and don’t move into anything like this without hearing His clear direction and having it confirmed by trusted leaders.

You don’t need to love
God’s
enemy, who is also
your
enemy, but you do need to ask God to help you love and pray for the people who are
influenced by the enemy
and are trapped in their enemy-inspired hatred. Loving your enemy doesn’t mean just someone you don’t happen to like. They are not your enemy. Your real enemy is your proclaimed adversary who has planned evil toward you or those close to you.

We are in a time when certain men are spending more hours
planning ways to do more and more evil. Can our acts of love and kindness make a difference? Can our trying to be more like God in our love toward others in any way compensate for the haters of God? In certain extreme cases, probably not. But in many others, it can. It doesn’t seem like it when we read of Christian churches being bombed by evil men, killing Christian men, women, and children. But we know that the death of these Christian martyrs are precious in the sight of the Lord, and they are with Him in His presence forever and rewarded for eternity.

If you are a believer and love God, how do you live around those who arrogantly disdain God and His ways? The answer is to show love for them. They don’t know what to do with that. It’s disarming. Love from you—that originates with the love of God within you—has power that even the firmest unbelievers cannot deny, but it still must be Holy Spirit led. You need to know what the Spirit is directing you to say and do.

One of the greatest acts of love we can give to those who hate us is our prayer that their hearts will be broken by God and softened enough to receive His love toward them
.

We may never know what good we have accomplished when we pray for people who are our proclaimed enemies. But it doesn’t matter. God knows.

The better we know God, the more we love Him and find ourselves developing a love for people beyond what we have had. We come to love people we don’t even know because God gives us His heart for them. But sometimes it is easier to love people we don’t know precisely for that reason. We don’t know how irritating, selfish, and loveless they can be. We don’t know how much they can hurt us.

The revelation God gave me that day He brought 1 Corinthians 13 alive to me in a new and startling way was that I was not to wait for God to
perfect me
in my ability to love others. In other words I should not
wait
to “feel it.” I should
choose
to obey the commandment of Jesus to “do it.”

Consistently having love for others is not only possible, it is required.

Jesus commanded it.

And He gave us His Holy Spirit to enable us to do it.

Because He gives us free will, we can
choose
to do it, remembering that what we do in love lasts forever. If we miss out on the rewards of showing love for others here on earth, we will have missed out on those rewards for eternity.

The price is too high. The consequences too final.

Prayer of Love

L
ORD
, I know that without You I don’t have it in me to love others the way You want me to. It’s only because of Your healing and restoring love guiding me by the power of Your Spirit that I have the capacity and the strength to show love in a life-changing way. I pray You would pour Your love into my heart and give me the ability to love people the way You do. Enable me to always show love in a manner that’s pleasing to You.

I pray for all believers who are persecuted for their faith. Help those of us who worship in freedom to not forget those who cannot. I don’t know how much longer we will be able to worship in freedom ourselves because of evil forces everywhere who have welcomed the anti-Christ spirit into their hearts. They work day and night against those of us who love and serve You, but I hope in Your return. Help us, Your people, not to wait apathetically as if we have no input into this world. Help us to remember that our love and prayers in Your name are always more powerful than their hate.

Lord Jesus, help me to obey Your command to love others as You love me. Teach me to live in Your love in such a complete way that this is not a challenge for me but rather a way of life. Enable me to love those who are hard to love. And show me how to better express love for the ones I already love.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

Words of Love

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.

1 J
OHN
5:2

Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.

L
UKE
6:31

This commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1 J
OHN
4:21

Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

C
OLOSSIANS
3:14

These things I command you, that you love one another.

J
OHN
15:17

16

What if I Can’t Always Be Patient and Kind?

W
hen you finish reading about all the ways God wants us to show His love for others in these next few chapters, I am sure you will see, as I do, why it’s impossible to do it without His help.

First of all, we are finite and can be inconsistent and moody. We can be selfish, and at certain times the thought of denying ourselves in favor of someone else is the last thing we want to do. We can develop an attitude and carry grudges. We can dredge up unforgiveness even after we thought we had long ago dealt with an offense or injury for the last time.

We can be impatient and unkind and think of ourselves more highly than we ought. We can be negative and hopeless and not value who God made us to be as much as we should. We can be irritating in countless ways without even realizing it.

Fortunately, God understands our human limitations, so He shares His strength with us when we humbly turn to Him. What pleases God is for us to be a channel of His love to others. It is one of the ways He reveals Himself to people in the world. When we hold back and don’t make it a point to love others, we hinder the spread of God’s kingdom—at least as much as is up to us.

Love Is Patient

Being patient with others is an act of mercy. And you know how God feels about mercy. It’s a sign of His great love. We show love and mercy when we are patient with people. It actually helps us to be patient when we remember that in the process we are expressing our love for God.

Along with love, long-suffering is a fruit of the Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can produce this in us. We can’t conjure it up on our own. When we invite the Holy Spirit in us to have full control over our lives and to work in us according to His perfect will, He produces all of the fruit of the Spirit—including patience.

Another word for “patience” is “long-suffering.” The Bible says, “Love suffers long” (1 Corinthians 13:4). I love the word “long-suffering” because it says it all. It’s suffering for a long time because of a person or situation.

Patience and long-suffering can be interchangeable. But in our culture today, patient is what a woman is with her husband when he forgets to pick up an important food item she requested from the grocery store on the way home from work. Long-suffering is what she is when her husband has started drinking again and she is determined to pray harder for him to find help for his problem instead of leaving him.