I’M SAVED, NOW WHAT? (part-19)

I’M SAVED, NOW WHAT? (part-19)

CHRISTIAN LOVE
The scriptures have much to say about love.

When we have a sincere faith, we can understand
the importance of our love relationship with God.
    Love the LORD your God with all your heart
    and with all your soul and with all your strength.
    (Deuteronomy 6:5)

As we saw earlier,
we show our love for the Lord when we obey His commands.
    If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14:15)

We show that Christ is living in us when we love our enemies.
    You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate
    your enemy. ‘But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those
    who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in
    heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and
    sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
    (Matthew 5:43-45)

Jesus set the example when He died for us even though we were His
enemies. If we love our enemies as He did, then we are mimicking
the actions (and attitudes) of Jesus, which make us a part of His family,
according to His Word – ‘….children of your Father’.

Jesus included love when giving us the top two commands.
He listed these two commands as the most important ones.
    One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
    Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked
    him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
    “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear,
    O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord
    your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
    all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this:
    ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment
    greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31)

James also mentions the second most important command (according to Jesus).
    If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture,
    “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
    (James 2:8)

    Note:
        James may have been clearing up any possible misunderstanding of
        verses 6-7. Even though he had some harsh words regarding the rich,
        he was not condemning any positive actions toward them. Love gives
        us the ability and attitude to look past the faults of others.

This same second command was issued
before Jesus even walked the earth in human form.
    Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone
    among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.
    I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18)

Why would He put so much emphasis on love? The first command to love
the Lord with all your heart is easy to understand. Loving the Lord means
we have a desire to develop His characteristics in our own lives, and we
want to please Him by obeying His commands.

But what about the second command? Why should we love our neighbors
as ourselves? I believe there are several reasons He would give us this
command and rank it as the second most important. When we think about
how we love ourselves, it becomes a little clearer. We want to attend to our
needs such as food, clothing, shelter and health. But our love for ourselves
goes much deeper than just our needs, it includes our wants:
    – We want others to like us for who we are
      and not because of our financial or social status.
    – We want others to show interest
      and be concerned about our issues and concerns.
    – We want others to be our true friends.
    – We want others to be honest with us.
    – We want others to be dependable and available when we need them.
    – We want others to treat us fairly.
    – We want others to avoid doing things that would harm our reputation
      (such as gossip) or cause us to be sad or depressed.
    – We want others to brighten our days.
    – We want others to avoid being rude to us.
    – We want others to respect us.
    – We want others to listen to us,
      and not to interrupt us when we are speaking.
    – We want others to pray for us.
    – We want others to encourage us.
    – We want others to avoid taking advantage of, or ‘using’ us.
    ……the list could go on and on depending on each individual.

Now we can appreciate the magnitude of what it means to love others as
ourselves. We can also understand the change required in our attitudes to
make it possible for us to love others as ourselves. It doesn’t mean we
forget our own wants and needs; it means we not only consider the wants
and needs of others, but we give them a higher priority than our own.
    Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
    Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.
    (Philippians 2:3)

When we can love others as ourselves, we are not only obeying the
second most important command (per Jesus), but we are following
the guidelines in God’s Word.
    And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name
    of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
    (Colossians 3:17)

Did you notice the last part of this scripture? It says that we should ‘give
thanks to God’ whenever we do everything ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus’.
Give thanks for what? We thank Him for being a part of our lives and giving
us the ability to become His witnesses through what we say and do. When
we consider the power that Satan can have on our decisions, we realize that
we are not equipped to engage in a battle with him. This is where God steps
in (when we pray and ask for His help) and provides us with what we need
to be victorious. His protection gives us reason to thank Him.

When we think about loving others as ourselves,
we may have several questions.
    “What is the scope of loving others as I love myself?”
    “Is He talking about those in my neighborhood?”
    “When should I love them as myself?”
    “How should I react when they aren’t receptive to my showing love to them?”
    “What if they start taking advantage of me?”
    “Will other friends of mine think that I am weird?”

There are probably many other questions that come to mind, but loving
others was difficult to understand even during the days when Jesus
walked the earth in human form. The scriptures give us an example of
a lawyer confronting Jesus. We can see from the questions he asked, he
appears to be probing for some limitations to the requirements for salvation
and the number of people he should love.
    On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
    “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
    “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read
    it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your
    heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and
    with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
    “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and
    you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked
    Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29)

Before we roll our eyes at this lawyer, we need to be honest and admit
that we could be guilty of having the same concerns – who are our
neighbors that we should love? Jesus often used examples to emphasize
His point and that’s what He did with this lawyer.
    In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem
    to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped
    him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half
    dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and
    when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too,
    a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on
    the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the
    man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went
    to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then
    he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and
    took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave
    them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I
    return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
    “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man
    who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied,
    “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do
    likewise.” (Luke 10:30-37)

We can see that Jesus did not want to engage in a debate with the lawyer.
Instead, in a very simple and straightforward way He allowed the man to
answer his own question. We can see from the example Jesus gave us,
there are no boundaries to those who should be considered our neighbors.
This may seem like an overwhelming broad brush, but we have to remember
that when we agree to obey the Lord, He provides us with the capacity for
loving others. This is another excellent reason to thank the Lord for His
blessings.

We may find it difficult to understand the concept of loving everyone
as the scriptures instruct us to do, but remember it was equally difficult
for the people to grasp in biblical times, especially considering the
animosity between the Jews and the Gentiles.

The scriptures give us examples of Jesus loving everyone in spite of their issues
and lack of belief. We also know (and should be thankful for) that God loves us
without limitations. He proved His love by sacrificing His Only Son to become
a cover for our sins. His sacrifice gives us the opportunity to receive the salvation
God offers to us (also out of love). We know that we can be creative enough to
justify our reasons for not loving some people, but James gives us a plain and
simple message – showing favoritism is a sin.
    But if you show favoritism, you sin
    and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
    (James 2:9)

How is your love life? How have you shown your love to others?
When have you made a special effort to show love to others (not
just within your family, but to others outside your family)? Have
you ever gone your of your way (extra mile) to show love to a
friend, or even a stranger?

Sometimes it can feel awkward and be an inconvenience, but
remember you are obeying one of the top two commands from
the Lord, and imagine how the other person feels about your
efforts.

Of course some may not react as we would expect them to, so
don’t create any preconceived ideas of what you should expect.
Instead, think about how the Lord feels about your efforts to
obey His command to love others.

One last thing to remember is, we can also show love by the things
we don’t do. For instance, we show love to others when we aren’t
rude to them (we don’t ignore them or interrupt them whenever they
are speaking to us; we don’t consider their concerns as insignificant
(if it is important to them, then we need to consider it from their
viewpoint and not ours; we don’t ridicule them or gossip about
them to others – God hates gossip!).

Everything we do or say should be driven by a heart and mindset of love.
When we claim to be followers of God, we are saying to others that we
want to mimic His characteristics and His most identifying characteristic
is “love”.
    Whoever does not love does not know God,
    because God is love. (1 John 4:8)