LOVING BIBLICALLY

Once a month I do a church-wide devotional from that Sunday's message, so I thought I’d share it on my blog for all my non-Cornerstone readers. Of course this devotional is only loosely based on the sermon...check out www.cstoneag.org to listen to the actual message! This week my Pastor, Shawn Franco shared God’s design for biblical love, which stands in stark contrast to the world’s idea of love which is in a continual state of flux and contradiction. However, God never changes, neither does His definition or design for biblical love. Let’s take a closer look:

We Encounter the MODEL of love through the divine expression of God’s Word - Jesus! Our clearest picture of biblical love comes from the model of Jesus - think Hallmark’s tagline: “When you care enough to send the very best”! God cared enough to send His very best - Jesus, so we could know true love. (John 3:16) Think about it! We can encounter a divine love so great, that nothing less than the sacrifice of His Son could even begin to express it! And He demonstrated that love while before we even knew Him. (Romans 5:8) To catch even a small glimpse of the depth of God’s love will radically change us forever and each and every relationship we possess will undergo a life-giving metamorphosis! Every question we have about the conduct of love is fully answered in Christ and every relationship crisis finds its restoration through following Jesus’ model of love. So great a love always commands a passionate response on our part and as God’s children we are to be imitators of our Father by mirroring that love back to Him and through modeling (sowing) it in the lives of others.  (Ephesians 5:1, I John 4:20)

We Experience the MEASURE or weightiness of love as we obey His commands. God’s commands were provided to bring fullness and protection, not to keep us in line. They express the weightiness of His love - i.e we can measure the depth of His love by the lengths He went to in protecting us through His laws! May we in turn choose to express the weightiness of our love by obeying those commands that He gave, for God weighs out the measure of our love for Him by the degree that we follow His commands. (John 14:15, 21, 23) It’s not about what we say; it’s what we do that determines the depth of our love for Him! (Matthew 7:21) Talk is cheap, obedience is costly, but only the latter showcases the weightiness of biblical love. (I John 5:2)

We Exemplify the MISSION of love as we live out His truth before the world; giving others a glimpse of who God is. We choose to follow His footsteps springing from love-filled hearts through obedience - becoming living epistles read and written on the hearts of men. (II Corinthians 3:3) In response to such great love, we become imitators of Jesus, who came not be served, but to give His life as a sacrifice for many! (Matthew 20:28) We can’t possibly follow the footsteps of Jesus and not love sacrificially; every facet of His life was driven by love for others! God’s name lifted up and His truth lived out, is the hope of this world and our personal mission of love! (I John 1:6, Colossians 1:27, Matthew 12:21)

How can we do this? We A-C-T:

Allow God’s expression of love to saturate our lives.
Choose to obey His commands for Love’s sake.
Tell others of His great love by accepting it for ourselves and then mirroring it back through obedience. These allow us to ACT and take our place in this exciting year of harvest!

Let’s pray.

Papa God, please come and show us the depth and weightiness of Your great love and then help us to share it with others.  Open our spiritual eyes that we might see the fields ripe for harvest. Strengthen us O God and replace our tepid hearts with ones that burn with passion for You and for the lost. Fill us with an increased boldness and grant us divine favor and appointments to walk out Your truth and unconditional love in this dark and dying world. Be the eternal hope within us and then give us ample opportunities to showcase Your everlasting hope and great, great love! In Jesus name, Amen.

Sweet Blessings,

Sandy