Gentle Dove Ministries International (GDMI) is a ministry dedicated to the Gentleness, Peace, Hope and Love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9/29/2007

The Greatest of These is Love



In today’s society it’s getting harder and harder to love. People are so selfish and self-centered that it’s really hard not to fall into the grumbling and complaining trap of the world.

I Corinthians 14:1 (NLT) tells us we are to “Let love be your highest goal.” I don’t know about you, but some of the people I run into during the course of a day are a long way from moving me to love. Think about it. There’s rush hour traffic, lines at the supermarket, sporting events, concerts, and more.

I Corinthians 13:13 says, “Three things will last forever -faith, hope, and love- and the greatest of these is love.” The whole chapter dwells on the fact that if we don’t love others we are nothing and have gained nothing even from our efforts to do humanitarian works. Ouch!!

In Matthew 22:34-40, we see the Sadducees trying to trap Jesus with the question of what the most important commandment was in the law of Moses, which of course is to love the Lord your God. But then Jesus goes on to say that “…..the second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

After Jesus came and fulfilled the law, He said in Matthew 7:12 that “…the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” is to love our neighbor as ourselves, and yet that is the greatest stumbling block in today’s society. We not only don’t like our neighbors, we’re not even civil to them. More to the point, we won’t even take the time to get to know them.

Look around in rush hour traffic at how many people are loving their neighbors. The worst of it is that the church is just as bad inside its own walls. We pick each other to pieces instead of restoring one another in love. I John 4:21 says, “Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters”. We need to take a serious look at how we treat people. We are all precious in God’s sight, and people should be able to tell us apart from the world just by our love walk.

We are not to think of ourselves more highly than others. We’re not only to watch for the needs of others, but we are to answer those needs. The world may never know God without first seeing His love in us. As the scriptures say, what good is it to see a need and say go and be blessed without doing anything about it?

Attitude is everything! We don’t have to embrace everyone as best friends but we need to learn to love people with the same love we receive ourselves from God. How are we going to do this? I think first of all we should pray thanking God for His love for us and ask Him to put people in our path that need His love and show us how to love them.

Psychologists say if we don’t feel loved and love ourselves in a balanced way that chances are we can’t or won’t love others. If we don’t already understand and feel God’s love for us, we should press in and come to that level of intimacy with Him for our own sakes as well as the sake of others.

The next thing we might look at is to show ourselves to be friendly. The old adage that you have to be a friend to have a friend is true. If you’re not friendly to people, no one will even want to be around you much less care what kind of qualities you may have. Having great compassion for others also helps to move us into a loving spirit. Jesus was a good example of showing compassion.

Why should we love the unlovely and unlovable? Luke 6:32 says, “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!” Verse 33 goes on to say, “And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much!” Verse 36 says, “You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”

Don’t we need to treat people on an equal basis with ourselves? John 13:35 says, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” A good way to begin loving is to be an encourager. Everyone needs and appreciates sincere encouragement and that can open the door to sharing God’s love with them.

Titus 3:14 points out that we must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others. Love your neighbor as yourself!! It’s not all about me, it’s all about showing God’s love……… “and the greatest of these is love”. Shalom, Marvin and Diana


Thanks to Microsoft Clip Art for use of the graphic.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Diana -
I appreciated your words very much.

Thanks for the encouragement to walk in love.

I intend to visit your blog as often as I can. It is a blessing!

Mel

8:18 AM

 
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6:20 PM

 

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