Let Them Hear About Our Love!
Written 2015
Waves* heyyyyy.
So in the department I belong to in my church “Believer’s Academy” we are studying the book of Colossians written by Paul. Colossians is one of the four letters that Paul wrote while in prison in Rome. Others are Ephesians (love love love this book), Philippians and Philemon. Now in this church founded by Epaphras, false teaching/heresy crept in (Gnosticism, Ascetism). The people started focusing on “spirit beings” instead of God. There was the belief that to reach God, you had to go through angels, there was also believing the old testament laws and discarding grace, astrology and believing that Jesus is not God. It was just chaotic. It seemed they had mixed pagan astrology, Jewish laws, mysticism and philosophy and Christianity. So Paul had to address this issue to teach and remind them of the deity of Jesus Christ, what Christ did for us, how and why we now have direct access to God.
But in Chapter 1, what really piqued my interest is Colossians 1 v 3–6.
It says; “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people — 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you.”
Here, Paul is happy and is thanking God for them because he heard about their faith and their love for one another! That love must have been pretty deep for Paul to hear about it don’t you think? I am a love person, I love love. The Bible says that God is love and we know from the same Bible that we have been created in the image of God, that means we are to look like God in the spirit (as God is a spirit). This means we are to represent love just like God.
While I believe speaking in tongues for hours and prophesying from now to tomorrow are good, I strongly believe that the most important thing for a believer is to love just as Christ loves us. See I Corinthians 13 v 1 -3;
“If 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. 2 If 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. 3 If 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.”
GOD IS LOVE. The day this sunk in and I understood it, I was speechless for a long time. It’s like saying rice is carbohydrates. Lol. I hope you get it.
Okay, moving on. These bible verses are not saying speaking in tongues or prophesying or giving is not good, it’s just saying loving people is better and is more powerful.
How is love better?
Let’s see Mark 12 v 31; “ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these”
See also Romans 13 v 10 “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law”.
Love is greater than any commandment! How, why? If you love your neighbor would you lie to him, would you not honor your parents if you loved them, would you kill a person if you loved them? See, love is the greatest. Better and easier to love than consciously following the law.
How is love more powerful? Let us look at Acts 2 verse 44–46 which says; “All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts”
These guys loved each other so much that they sold their properties in order to help those in need. I can’t remember the last time I heard of something like this in this world we live in. I was blown away. And whenever the power of the Holy Spirit is to be talked about guess what book of the Bible we study? You got that right, Acts of the Apostles!
When you have love, you have power after all 1 John 4 v 16 says; “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them”
So contrary to popular belief, to love does not mean one is weak. Satan probably thought God was weak because of how He loves us that’s one of the reasons he must have rebelled, thinking he could defeat The Most High but look at Satan now, defeated before the battle even begun!
I keep saying this, that if Christians lived in love we wouldn’t need to preach to unbelievers. That’s how the saints were in Acts 11. The way they lived caused people to call them “Christians” as in “like- Christ”. The way we live will speak for us and draw them to us. But it’s different these days, many Christians are after the wrong things and live out the most important element — love.
Love is not art to me. It’s a lifestyle. It’s way of life.
How are you living your life? Can people tell you are a Christian because of how you speak? How you treat others? God is coming for a church without spot or wrinkle.
Love, xx
