Focus: Loving And Being Loved

Text: 1Jh.4:8

"He that loveth not knoweth not God."

The greatest force in the kingdom of God is the force of love. Paul wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith, that God has given us the spirit of love. Paul told the church in Rome that God by means of the Spirit had poured the love of God into their hearts. Within the heart of the believer in Christ the river of love flows.

God is love, and love is the business of heaven. Christ established His kingdom on love. The Christian faith operates by love. People of faith are indeed people of love. Our relationship with God and others is absolutely based on love. Our actions are informed and influenced by love. Christianity is the religion of love. We get and give love. We live by the rule of love. 

Love is the motivating force of all the believer's choices and actions. We inhale and exhale love.

Someone says that "love is the one business in which it pays to be an absolute spendthrift: give it away; throw it away; splash it over; empty your pockets; shake the basket; and tomorrow you'll have more than ever."

How sweet it is to love and be loved! Apostle John tells us that loving others is a proof that we know God. It is balderdash, claiming to know God without loving others. God's love in our hearts dictates our actions. Love is our way of life.

Seen in four characteristics, love can be described as:

*Language of love

Love is on our lips and in our words. We speak the language of love. Everything we do is expressive of our love. We communicate love and impact others by it. The soul knows and understands the language of love. Words of love melt the hearts. Both creation and redemption are necessitated by love in God's heart.

*Obligations of love

Love is a responsibility. It is more than words; it's a duty - what we do. It is also a debt we owe to everyone we meet at every point in time. Paul talks about "the labor of love."

*Virtues of love

Love is a virtue, and indeed, the mother of all virtues. Love is virtuous. It knows no vice. Love gives and forgives. Love does no evil. Love never sins. Love does not bear grudges or harbor evil feelings against others.

*Echoes of love

Love is a divine sound - musical echoes of heaven. The echoes of love reverberates through us in the world. People who come in contact with us hear the sweet sound of heaven. We emit and transmit love to others from the heart of God. By our good deeds we release the echoes of love. Yes, by our life we are echoing God's love.

Love is our song. Love is our life. We live by the law of love. It is the yardstick by which our words and deeds are weighed or measured.

It's so sweet to love and be loved. Let us by loving others show that we know God! It's said that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter