Walk in Love

Love is a very familiar word to us. We use it freely. Someone might say, "I love hot dogs, or I love my dog or my truck, or I love my husband, or I love God."

Do we love our dog in the same way as we love our husband? Is there a difference in the way we love hot dogs and the way we love God?

Our culture uses the word love to mean just about everything except what the Bible means by it.  We are easily misled into thinking love is primarily a feeling, or an emotion. We associate it with lust or sex; we talk about "making" love. The word "love" used here to describe erotic love, sensual love; what you feel when you "fall in love," a passionate attraction to another person. That kind of love is not even mentioned in the Word of God, though it is a common form of love today. In all of Scripture, love is first of all an action.

It can be a challenge to walk in love as Christ loved us when we’re surrounded with people who have turned their backs to God and are living in and promoting sin. When we are faced with the pressures of the economic crunch along with the wickedness of immorality and the deceptive minds, it feels like an impossible task. 

How do we live God’s commandment to walk in love as Christ loved us?

Often, Christians make the grave error of “trying” to be a Christian and forcing themselves to “act” like a Christian. Being a Christian does not require us to try anything or act like anything. A Christian does it naturally.

As Christians we have faith and believe in God, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and receive His Holy Spirit. This Is God’s spirit that now lives in us.  We no longer belong to the world and are not ruled and controlled by the world.

In Romans 8:9, Paul says that we are not in the flesh and that the Spirit of God dwells in us.

Faith in God is the key to being a Christian. We need faith to accomplish all that He has promised, and we need faith to be able to endure all that He has asked us to do.  Through faith we are baptized with the Holy Spirit and through faith we can do all things.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Through the Holy Spirit) Philippians 4:13,

In Mark 12:30-32 Jesus says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all they strength; this is the first commandment.  And the second commandment is like this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. ”

In order to walk in love as Christ loved us, we have to focus on God, His great commandment and His Spirit which He gave to us as strength and power to do His will. One of the reasons why we can’t show any kind of love to people who offend us is because we tend to judge these people and make it our stand to not associate with them. We don’t approve of their lifestyle and we have this built-in need (from this world) to judge them and preach at them.  This is not walking in love because God never asked us to judge anyone.  In fact, He warns us against it.

The only thing He asked us to do is to love others the same way He loves us. We don’t have to become their best friends or their big brother. We just have to be decent to them.  Say good morning, compliment them, tell them what a beautiful day it is, ignore their sinful ways, greet them with a smile and pray for them.

Hate the sin, but not the sinner. Through our love, the world will see God.

Jesus tells us to love one another as He has loved us, and that the world will know we are His disciples because we show love for other people regardless of who they are. Through the grace and power of His Spirit in us, we will be able to love others as God loves us.  

We are to keep no record of wrongs done to us.

In Matthew 5:4 Jesus tells us to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us and pray for them that despitefully use us.  

These are not things we can do on our own. We can only accomplish this through the power and the love of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus invites people to continue love as a way of living. It is the defining act of what it means to live. And in doing so, he opened up a world that revealed something extraordinary: the Kingdom of God.

We all want our loved ones to trust Jesus alone for eternal life.

We want our children growing up knowing God's unconditional love.

We want our world to understand grace!

Love is a choice.

We can choose to be concerned with people's well-being and treat them with respect, whether we feel affection toward them or not.

If we choose to love others, God will help us express our love.

Will you make the decision today to love others as you love yourself?

           Today and Every Wednesday I link up Here and we Walk with Him, posting a spiritual practice that draws us nearer to His heart.