love, a morning devo

This is a devo i wrote a few months back. I found it a few days ago and was hit with the fact that i have not been living it. It has become a goal to act out in my own life. One i struggle with continually. I find i am constantly having to fight a critical spirit and more often then not fail entirely. How can it be so hard to fight criticism, when i know how much Christ has done for me? Why do i battle forgiving others when He has forgiven me of so may offenses? Part of the reason i believe, is found in I Timothy (all throughout Paul's writing and in fact throughout the entire word of God). Hope these thoughts can be a blessing to others...
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The other morning when I was doing my personal devos this verse struck me. I have read it many times but something I heard a pastor from Ecola Bible say the other day put a whole new light on the verse. I thought I would share.

-I Timothy 1:3-7 NIV-

“As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work – which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”

The pastor was talking about living a Christian life (Christ-like life) always running from what is “wrong”. It’s wrong to steal, its wrong to get angry at a friend. It’s wrong to gossip about a co-worker or to think of the dislike you have for them. The Pastor was saying we spend to much time and effort running from the wrong, so we can be more Christ like, when all we have to do is to love. And then he moved onto the next subject and that was it. He said no more on the subject but for weeks it’s been on my mind.

My first thought was too I Corinthians 13:13

“now these remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”

Although I have heard this verse all my life it has never made too much sense. How can love be more important then faith? Isn’t our Christian life built solely on faith? Another verse then came to mind. James Ch. 2

2:14 “What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith, but has no deeds?”

2:17. “In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead”

2:26 “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

So I went back to Paul’s words to Timothy and read them again.

“ The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Paul says "the goal of this command..." What command? The word is translated from the Greek word paraggelia, (par-ang-gel-ee'-ah) which can also mean a mandate or a charge. Paul is referring to the Christian walk, the New Covenant or the Gospel. The fact that Jesus came, bled, died and rose again to replace the “old covenant” or the code, that so many Jews were still hanging onto, and gave them a new way to live. He states that the goal of the Christians life is love. That simple. After ones faith is in place, action must take place in a very simple concept… love. Paul gives us three steps to pursue love.

-a pure heart
-a good conscience
-a sincere faith

Is that really it? Can my Christian walk be that simple? I believe from scripture it can. Think about it. Would you ever murder, lie or commit adultery if you really loved everyone? If you really truly love the brother next to you, would you get irritated when they mess up? Would you steal from him, or think wrong thoughts about him? Why would you gossip about her if you really loved her deep down as sister in Christ, or even just one of Gods creations? We can see from the gospels that Jesus’ entire ministry was summed up in loving people.

In Romans 13, known also as “the love chapter”, Paul again says starting in verse eight.

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “do not commit adultery”, do not murder”, “do not steal”, “do not covet”, and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love IS the fulfillment of the law.”

Paul sums it up right there, we need to Love. I find it interesting that we are told to love others as ourselves. If there is one person my flesh tends to naturally look out for it ol' number one. What a simple standard of measure... one we can all relate to and no one leave at home;) I think of these WWJD bracelets. Well maybe we should all start wearing WWID (what would I do) in light of doing for others what we would want for ourselves.

In Galations 5:6 we read

“…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

As we all know it’s not always easy to love everyone. But it was interesting to me that Paul’s steps for true love were all personal, and internal. It’s not a formula or a list of do’s and don’ts. A pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith, all internal, for no one else to see. Hopefully we have the sincere faith. But think, how sincere am I? Do i have the passion i had the moment of my salvation? The Greek word for sincere can also be translated undeniable (a pretty good argument for eternal salvation i think;).

The other two steps might take a little more work, at least for me. A pure heart. I think of garbage in… garbage out. I am the king of putting the wrong stuff in. I have seen in my own life the roller coaster from Christian living to falling deep into sin and then back again. And I keep on doing it. How hard am I working to keep my heart pure. Clean and clear, with no dark smudges or hidden closets. The way I see it I can’t have that true love if I have things clouding my heart. And what clouds your heart is going to be different then what clouds mine. I don’t see Paul listing ten sins to stay away from. I believe that is left to the Holy Spirit convicting us on what we need to clean up in your own life.

Last is the clear conscience. Seems to me this follows the pure heart as a sort of checks and balances. I don’t think we could ever really have the pure heart unless we have removed all those things the Holy Spirit has put on our conscience. Again, I have seen in my own life, it’s no sooner then I give up that habit, that has been bugging my conscience for so long, that I notice some other sin in my life that never seemed to bother me before.

Remember God wants us to live our lives as close to Himself as possible. And God cannot walk hand in hand with sin. And he’s not going to give up. If we fail to remove the sin in our life he has placed on our conscience, He is not going to say “well he’s not getting rid of that one, we’ll move onto the next” No he will keep on faithfully placing us under trials until we yield to his will and take care of the sin. And only then after we completely repent and turn from that sin will he show us the “next step”. (i have had many such first hand accounts even in this last year; sad to say.)

We know from scripture God desires a love relationship with us, and gives us the tools we need to acquire it. I believe true biblical Love is one of those tools, and a very important on at that. Remember its only after our life is right with Christ that we can live a proper Christ like life with those around us.

I am preaching to myself here, as I need to learn this and work at it as much as anyone… maybe more. But it’s been on my mind allot the past few weeks and I thought I would share.

Please take this as a challenge. See who you can love this summer. Every time a thought enters your mind, stop and think, is it pure? I believe this is a challenge we all could undertake. If we only love, everything else will fall into place. We won’t need to run from the “wrongs”, because we will desire to do what is right. You can’t sin against a brother you truly love.

“… The greatest of these is LOVE.”

I Corinthians 13 describes love in such a beautiful way. It does not tell you how to love, it tells you, how love is. These are traits I desire in my own life. And I believe Christ desires them for all of us. How do we acquire them? Do we work to become everything on this list? No we simply love, and these beautiful personality traits are sure to follow.

-love is patient
-love is kind
-love does not envy
-love does not boast
-love is not proud
-love is not rude
-love is not selfish
-love is not easily angered
-love keeps no account of wrong
-love rejoices in truth
-love protects
-love hopes
-love perseveres
-love never fails
…never fails.

Take care

SoliDeoGloria