What Love Does

As I have been praying through and meditating on the names and titles of God I was thinking about 1 Jn 4:8 where John says that "God is love."  It does not take long to know where our culture goes when it thinks about love.  However, in John 3:16 and in many other places love is a verb, love is an action word!  That sent me down the path of simply thinking about what love does.

In John 14:21 we hear a beautiful and bold invitation from Jesus.  “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”” The invitation is simple, accept His Lordship and His Word...revealing a love for Jesus, and in return He will reveal Himself to us.  How can we keep HIS commandments?  This is only possible because we are new creatures in Christ, as we see in 2 Cor. 5:17.

For God's children, those that have been born from above, we learn in 2 Peter 1:4 that we have become "partakers of the divine nature," and we are called by God to "put on" the "new self created after the likeness of God (Eph 4:24)."  

A brief survey of God's Word shows us what it means to be new creatures in Christ.  In this new birth, being born from above we have a new mind (1 Cor 2:16) to know Him, intimately know Him, and a new heart (Ezekiel 11:19 and Rom 5:5) to love Him and a new will (Rom 6:11-13) to obey Him.  Now when we look at John 14:21 we see how it is possible to walk in obedience to His commands and see Jesus.  The only way is by the indwelling power of Yahweh-Sabaoth, the LORD of Hosts.  Zechariah received a breath-taking Word from God.  "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)  In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul speaks of his hard work but acknowledges that it was God working through him.  

“But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)

In Micah 6:8 God tells us what love does.  "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  Through the Holy Spirit Paul gives us a beautiful picture of what love does in 1 Cor 13.  Another place where the core of love is pictured is John 15:13,  “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.”  Also in 1 John 4:10, “In this is love . . . that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  In Romans 5:8 Paul tell us that, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

I believe that at the core of what love does is love is a self-sacrificing, self-giving pursuit of the beloved’s greatest good regardless of the cost to the lover.  
As new creatures, equipped with a new mind to know Him, a new heart to love Him and a new will to obey Him...empowered and filled with His Spirit for His glory and our joy in Him.  What does love do?  “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16)

 pursuing Him together!

m

“Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.” (Eph 6:24)