Unity
# 9: THAT The Love With Which You LoveD Me May Be In Them…
Dear Father,
I praise You for
Your deep love for Your people. You never stop doing good on our behalf. Your
Rod and Your Staff comfort us. Please increase the fear of the Lord within our
hearts. I want to fear You Father, for then I am protected from every wicked
snare. Make the Image of Your glory and splendor so magnificent in our hearts
that nothing appeals to our hearts except Your unfailing love. Day after day we
cry out for the restoration and redemption of Your people. I have heard of Your
great deeds. Please renew them in our time. The deeper our understanding of
Your precepts and doctrines, the greater is the depth our worship. Your Truth
inspires and enlivens our hearts.
In Jesus Christ’s Name,
Amen
Dear Beloved,
Our
Lord and Savior has given us a new commandment: that we love one another, even
as Christ has loved us, so we are to love one another. By this, all men will know that we are His disciples, if we have love
for one another. (John 13:34-35) Love is our only distinct asset as
followers of Christ. For love is the fulfillment of all the law of God (Rom
10:13) and through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for (Prov 16:6). Hated
stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions (Prov 10:13). Better is a
dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred (Prov
15:17). As we consider the people around us and the ways that they bring
benefit to our soul, remember those people who have loved us unconditionally.
Remember those who have loved us at all times, the brother born for adversity
(Prov 17:17), whose open rebuke of love was better than the false love that
conceals the dangerous deceptions within us (Prov 27:5). Greater love has no
one than Christ who laid down His life for us, only to take it up again.
This
letter will discuss some parts of God’s Word which show us how and why love
characterizes and authenticates us as true children to God. To summarize, we
are able to love because God first loved us and continually pours His love into
our hearts by His Spirit. His love in us:
·
perfects our unity
·
makes our joy
complete
·
purifies our hearts
·
grants us assurance
of our salvation
·
removes the
feelings of condemnation in our hearts
·
opens the eyes of
our hearts to see the Truth of God’s Word and our current circumstances with
the Light of Christ
·
causes us to ask
and receive according to His will
·
prevents us from
being deceived
·
shows that we have
been truly born again and are thus saved
·
is manifested in physical
ways for the saints
·
allows us to
overcome the world.
Just
as the Father has loved Christ, Christ has loved us; He commands us to abide in
His love. If we keep His commandments, we will abide in His love; just as
Christ has kept His Father’s commandments and abides in His love. He tells us
these things so that His joy may be in us, and so that our joy may be made
full. (John 15:9-11) The love of the Father for His Son is exceedingly great and
He was pleased to let all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to
reconcile to Him all of us, making peace through His blood shed on the cross
(Col 1:19-20) Through Christ’s blood we are reconciled to the Father and the
Father Himself loves us, because we have loved Christ and have believed that He
came from the Father (John 16:27).
The
glory which was given to Christ by His Father has been given by Christ to us so
that we may be ONE just as the Father and Son are One. Dear saints, the unity among us must be as strong as the Oneness of the
Trinity! This is God’s will for us.
Christ is in us and the Father is in Christ that we may be perfected in unity,
so that the world may know that the Father sent Christ and has loved us even as
He has loved Christ. Christ desires for us who are given to Him to be with
Him where He is so that we may see His glory which the Father has given Him. For
the Father has loved Him before the foundation of the world. Though the world
has not known the righteous Father, Christ knows Him and we have known that the
Father sent Christ. Christ has made the
Father’s Name known to us and will continue to make it known, so that
the love with which the Father loved Christ may be in us, and that Christ may
be in us. (John 17:22-26)
How
great is the love that the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called
children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us,
because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has
not appeared as yet what we will be. (1 John 3:1-2) No eye has seen, ear heard,
or mind conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him, yet He reveals
it to us by His Spirit in us (1 Cor 2:9-10).
We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see
Him just as He is. As we have our hope fixed on Christ, we purify ourselves,
just as Christ is pure. (1 John 3:2-3).
Beloved,
we should not be surprised if the world hates us. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the
people of God. If we do not love we abide in death. Everyone who hates his
brother is a murderer; and we know that no murderer has eternal Life abiding in
him. We know love by this, that Christ laid down His Life for us; and we ought
to lay down our lives for one another. If we have the world’s materials of
money, possessions, time, and strength, and see our Spiritual family in need
and close our heart against them, how does the love of God abide in us? We are
His little children, and we are commanded not to love with word or with tongue,
but in deed and Truth. By this we will
know that we are of the Truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever
our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and
whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do
the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment that we
believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He
commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.
By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1
John 3:13-24)
the Love of Christ within us Enables us to OBEY God’s Law
Beloved,
this is not a new commandment, but an old commandment which God has set in
place from the beginning. For the Law of God was founded on His eternal
unfailing love which has existed from beginning to end. The old commandment is
the Word which we have heard. On the other hand, He is writing a new
commandment to us, which is true in Christ and in us, because the darkness is
passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says that he is
in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one
who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling
in him. When we are controlled by love,
we are able to see clearly and understand the Truth of God’s Word, but when we
harbor hatred, our perspective is clouded and we are unable to discern
situations and people in a Truthful way. The one who hates his brother is
in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going
because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:7-11) We are unable to
understand or believe the Truth, unless we love as Christ did.
Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born
of God and knows God. If we are unable to
love, we have not been born of God and are not saved, though we may feel that
we are. By this is the love of God manifested in us, that God has sent His
only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation, that is, the atonement or expiation, for our sins. Beloved, if
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any
time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in
us. (1 John 4:7-12) How do we love with
Christ’s love? God has poured His love
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He has given us (Rom 5:5) By
this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His
Spirit. (I John 4:13)
If
we have truly confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in us, and we
in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in
him. By this, love is perfected with us,
so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so
also we are in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts
out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not
perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. If we say that we love
God and hate our brother, we would be a liar. For the one who does not love his
brother whom he has seen cannot love God who he has not seen. And this
commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love His
brother also. (1 John 4:15-21)
the Love of Christ within Us and the Resulting Obedience to
His Commands Gives US Assurance of OUR Salvation
Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father
loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God,
when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For
whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has
overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:1-4)
Excellent Messages
Jesus
Makes up for Every Sacrifice Article by
David Mathis
Love in Christ,
Preethi
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