Love never ends!

2 of a series of 3:

(1Corinthians 13:8) “Love never ends…”

In “Agape” love we first see a total selfless sacrifice before any rewards are reaped. I will not profess to speak as one who has understood this topic down-pat but what I will say is what I have been shown by scripture with God the Holy Spirit as my guide. How do I get to such a conclusion? Not only is the pattern throughout scripture obvious and God has shown it to us over and over in and through the law. Men breaking God’s commandments and God by way of sacrificial animals made away for forgiveness. But this only lasted until the next sin, a desperate situation! Therefore all the law really proved was that we are sinners and in need of a life-line if we were to have any hope. It is here we see charity personified! A Son (child) is born in a manger and it is through this life of His that He shows us what “agape love” is all about as He ends up on a cruel Roman cross paying the price for the crime He never committed; “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Corinthians 5:21)

But what was the state of mankind when this cruel act took place? They (we) were not the friends of God but His enemies; “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:10) – I want us to keep this thought in mind; does love require something in return? We know that God’s love is the purest form of love and I will prove this from scripture. Yesterday I spoke of a proviso that in order for us to make it to heaven we must believe in Him (Jesus Christ the Lord), if not our destiny will be hell! But before anything was required from us God first loved us and now that we have been loved first we too must now love back; “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34) – But before we can understand what this means we must first appreciate what it cost God in sending his beloved Son to die for us. This is pivotal if we want to understand “Agape (charity) love – God alone understands the truth of love”!

I pray that God would open our eyes to see what the Spirit now teaches us. So, for us to do this we must first look at the true definition of God’s “Agape” love. There are other types of love that is use in scripture and the one which we often confuse is “phileo” love; which means to be friends to an individual or object, that is, have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling).

What then is this mind-blowing Agape love? The best explanation we have for it is found in 1Corinthians chapter 13: - “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…” (1Corinthians 13:4-8) – This type of love does not end!  When we hear people make statements like I once loved him but I no longer do, all this proves is that this is not God’s love but the love of mankind. This is why we move from relationship to relationship and our minds change all the time, it is a type of love tainted by sin! It does not last! So then before anything is ever expected in return from God He first puts His love on display in and through His beloved Son and sends Him to earth to die for His enemies. Hard to believe but believe it we must!

Let us consider what the Lord relinquished in order to prove Gods love to us. We know He could have called ten thousand angels to rescue Him from the hands of men while on the cross, but he didn’t. Foxes have holes and birds have nest but He had no place to lay His head. He made himself a little lower than the angels and yet He is God. He was under such duress in the Garden of Gethsemane that He began to sweat bloods of blood. At times He had to contend with His unbelieving disciples. All of hell was unleashed upon Him as the bulls of Bashan gaped at Him while on that cruel Roman cross; “Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet-- I can count all my bones-- they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!” (Psalms 22:12-19) - But then above all his own Father turned His back on Him because of our sin; “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"” (Matthew 27:46) – His whole live was filled with obedience to God His Father and yet for our sakes God turn his back on His only begotten Son, mind blowing! 

    

I now trust the difference of men’s understanding of love as opposed to God’s love is clearly understood. Lord willing we will tie the two blogs together and conclude by understanding what must come first in our lives in order for us to be beneficiaries of His love. We hopefully will understand that in God’s love there is nevertheless a condition, we too must lay down our lives like Christ laid down His life for His brethren, you and me, the ones that now believes on Him. This in itself has nothing to do with salvation as it is a free gift but it has everything to do with on-going sanctification (a person set apart by God so that His purposes may be accomplished).

Signing off

Tyrone