I EXTRAORDINARY LOVE
One of the greatest gifts anyone could ever own is to be able to love with the extraordinary love with which Jesus loved. One can call it extraordinary love, because no one has ever given their life for a man such as Jesus did the day He was crucified for the sins of mankind. Imagine what a gift He gave that day as He hung bleeding with the nails in his hands and feet, the crown of thorns on His head and the flesh of His body barely clinging to His bones as He hung there on the wooden cross. He gave His life as His blood was spilled for the love of mankind. That will always be the greatest example of extraordinary love ever given and no one could ever supersede that example.
The Holy Spirit clearly spoke through Paul that the greatest gift is love. “And now abides faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13). Love is the catalyst, per say, the bridge to all things. Love is not a feeling. Love is a disciplined way of life. Love is an attitude of the heart that must be practiced until it is developed as part of one’s very nature. The Bible tells us that if a person belongs to Christ Jesus they have nailed their sins to the cross which causes the sinful nature to become dormant and they no longer want to be what they were before. This statement is true as one reads the scriptures,
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed their sinful nature to his cross. They don’t want what their sinful nature loves and longs for. Since we live by the Spirit, let us march in step with the Spirit. Let us not become proud. Let us not make each other anger. Let us not want what belongs to others. (Galatians 5:24-25).
Paul explains to the Galatians, “But the fruit the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy, and peace. It is being patient, kind and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself” (Galatians 5:22). Notice that the first fruit of the Holy Spirit that is mentioned is love. Love is the bridge that crosses over to have joy and peace. Love is the bridge that crosses over to being patient, kind and good to and with others. The extraordinary love of God on the inside of us is the bridge that helps us to be faithful to the things we commit to do and to be gentle of character, and have self–control when crazy things happen.
God the Father has called each and every one of His people to be an expression of God’s love on the planet earth. John wrote, “I give you a new command. Love one another. You must love one another, just as I have loved you. If you love one another, everyone will know you are my disciples” (John 13:34, 35). Sometimes loving others is not as easy as we would like it to be. But if we love God and His Word, we want to obey out of love for Him. Sometimes we have to love in faith the ones who hurt us. But Love’s grace gives one the ability to be able to love enough to forgive, to release, not to hold to account the wrong done, and to pray for the one who causes us pain. The Bible tells us,
God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows that he is joined to God. And God is joined to him….. Anyone who says he loves God but in fact hates his brother or sister is a liar. He doesn’t love his brother or sister, whom he has seen. So he can’t love God whom he has not seen. (I John 4:16, 20)
When one learns to walk in the extraordinary love of God there is room for healing, growth, prosperity, and many other doors to God’s goodness are open beyond our imagination.
We must allow God’s love to grow in us because love is what we were born for. The Bible itself is a love letter full of instruction from the Father to us teaching us by Word and example the way of true life and love. In example, “Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves. Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord” (Romans 12:9-11).
As one reads these scriptures it is easy to see that love is the bridge once again that helps us to hate evil and hold on to the good things. Love helps us to honor others, and keep the fire in our hearts in order to be able to serve God. These scriptures express the extraordinary love that only God can express by His Holy Spirit through us. “And hope will never let us down. God has poured his love into our hearts. He did it by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5). God’s Love gives a person hope.
II THE WAY OF LOVE
In speaking about love the Bible tells us:
"And now I will show you the best way of all. Suppose I speak in the languages of human beings and of angels. If I don’t have love I am only a loud gong or a noisy symbol. Suppose I have the gift of prophecy. Suppose I can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him. And suppose I have enough faith to move mountains. If I don’t have love, I am nothing at all. Suppose I give everything to the poor people. And suppose I give my body to be burned. If I don’t have love, I get nothing at all." (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
These scriptures explain in very simple words the way of love. Without love we are nothing and we have nothing and we also get nothing. Jesus gave us the example of true love. There is no mistake in that and we should follow His example.
Love is the catalyst to all good things in life. Human love is full of false expectations, false dreams and unreal demands. Human love is full of selfishness and is based on self
Human love is based on making others slaves for themselves, while God’s love is based on what can I do for others and give to others. God’s love does not make slaves of others, but rather makes them stars and sets them free to be themselves. God’s love does not make unreal demands or false expectations. The Bible tells clearly what God’s love is,
"Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interest. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up. Love never fails." (I Corinthians 13:4-8)
God’s love never fails us. Human love fails. As humans we fail each other, but God is true to all of his words; he never fails and his love never fails! Here in these scriptures is a description of God our Father and who He is and wants us to become. This is a big charge for the believer. But as we embrace the Living Word on a daily basis, His words will begin to become flesh in us as we become transformed into His image through the power of the anointed Word of God.
In the Bible one reads, “But the fruit of the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy, and peace. It is being patient, kind, and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself. There is no law against things of this kind” (Galatians 5:22). As we can see here, love is the bridge that crosses over to the Fruits of the Spirit. Without love there is no joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control. Because love is patient and love is kind, love demonstrates self-control by not wanting what belongs to others. Love is gentle when it does not brag about itself, and is proud. Love is kind when it is not rude, looks out for its own interests or becomes angry. Love is patient when it does not keep track of wrong doing, and it never gives up. Love is faithful and joyful when good prevails, when it has the opportunity to protect, and give hope to someone in a situation that’s out of control. These are God’s attributes, and when a person gets born again these very attributes become a part of him or her. As one embraces the Word of God these attributes begin to develop on the inside. There are many other scriptures in the Word of God that show the connection between our natural lives and how the extraordinary love of God can and must become a way of life for us.
III MORE ON THE WAY OF LOVE
Jesus, through His extraordinary love, came to show us the way in this life by means of the cross. The Bible is full of scriptures that teach us about this love. “Hate stirs up fights. But love erases all sins by forgiving them.” (Proverbs 10:12). This is exactly what Jesus did through his extraordinary love. We are to do likewise, not that we should be crucified, but that we should love our neighbors as Christ loves. The love of Christ does not make life difficult for others, but find ways to help. This kind of love sacrifices it’s own self in deeds and actions in order for someone else to have what they need. This kind of love can only be revealed to one, as the person seeks God with all their heart.
Matthew wrote, “Ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. Everyone who asks will receive. He who searches will find. The door will be open to the one who knocks” (Matthew 7:7-8).When God’s love is revealed in our hearts by His Holy Spirit, it is then that one can love others as oneself. Loving ourselves is a prerequisite of loving others like Christ loves them. This is the reason one is commanded to love God selflessly. This is what helps us to love others unconditionally, and to care without reserve. This is what brings the passion of Jesus in our hearts. This is what causes us to have mercy and compassion to bring healing to a lost and dying world. As a believer learning to love God with all that is within is the first prerequisite, learning to love ourselves as Christ loves us is the second prerequisite to truly living by the love chapter in the book of First Corinthians and fruits of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five.
An individual may ask how one accomplishes that, it is a big charge. Read in your Bible about whom God is and what He does, and what He has done all along throughout history. Find out what you received when you received Christ into your life. In these processes you will find out who He is in you; through all that, you will find out who you are in Him. In the mean time be filled with the Holy Spirit and power, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. (Acts 2:2-4) This is a process that every believer must follow. The more you make a heart decision to yield to the work of God in you the more He gives Himself to you. God will make you a vessel of honor in His house.
When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was in the law,
Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind. This is the first and most important commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Everything that is written in the law and the prophets is based on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)The last part of this scripture ties the bow on the first two parts; as believers we are not asked if we want to walk in love, we are commanded to walk in love because the foundation of the whole entire (law and prophets) Word of God is love. That is who God is! Let’s confirm the Word of God by reading the Old Testament references on these two commandments. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). “Do not try to get even. Do not hold anything against one of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as yourself. I am Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).All across the Bible we will find these two scriptures confirmed in different ways, always taking us back to the same meaning of it all: the cross, the whip, the crown, the nails and finally the blood. Every one of these things, either symbolically or in reality, have a strong message of love and tell the story of Jesus. Jesus is still the greatest and only example of true love.
The following scripture shows that the love of God is far more important than having knowledge. This proves that knowledge without God is empty and useless. It’s much better to be known of God than to have all the knowledge in the world.
…We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people proud. But love builds them up. Those who think they know something still don’t know as they should. But those who love God are known by God. (I Corinthians 8:1-3)
If we want to be known by God we must get away from pride and be humble. The Bible also tells us that the love of Christ controls us in 2 Corinthians 5:14. It is his love that keeps us. His love represents what He did on the cross. If we recognize what he did on the cross then we would know that Jesus was not only a meek and humble servant of love from beginning to end, but He had integrity in speaking for He only spoke what he heard the Father saying. Jesus could hear His Father speaking because He lived in His presence and that is where we need to be. The Apostle John wrote, “So we know that God loves us we depend upon it. God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows he is joined to God. And God is joined to them” (1 John 4:16). We find in the scriptures that this extraordinary love of God is so powerful it casts out fear. When God’s love is made complete on the inside of us we will not live in fear and we become overcomers, therefore giving place to boldness. Feelings of failure and inadequacy will leave and confidence begins to come to the heart. According to John,
So love is made complete among us. We will be bold in the day God judges us. That’s because in this world we love as Jesus did. There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives fear away. Fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love. (1 John 4:17)
Someday when we as believers stand in the presence of the Lord to be judged, we will not be intimidated by His presence because we learned to walk and live in His love while on earth. In His presence we are so surrounded in His love fear can not stay. His presence in us drives away the fears we may have and gives room for the perfection of that love in our hearts. As His people we must seek to live a life of extraordinary love so that others may know we are His disciples. We must always remember that faith works by the fruit of love, so without love faith can not reach its highest potential. (Galatians 5:6) We can love God because He first loved us. That love transforms our core, and causes us to desire Him, as we experience His unconditional love.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion to all, the love of God is the foundation of the Word of God, and we must become an example to the people that surround our world. This example of love was given by Jesus when He gave up His life on the cross for all of mankind. Jesus redeemed it all and gave it back to us, now what are we going to do with it?
One of the greatest gifts anyone could ever own is to be able to love with the extraordinary love with which Jesus loved. One can call it extraordinary love, because no one has ever given their life for a man such as Jesus did the day He was crucified for the sins of mankind. Imagine what a gift He gave that day as He hung bleeding with the nails in his hands and feet, the crown of thorns on His head and the flesh of His body barely clinging to His bones as He hung there on the wooden cross. He gave His life as His blood was spilled for the love of mankind. That will always be the greatest example of extraordinary love ever given and no one could ever supersede that example.
The Holy Spirit clearly spoke through Paul that the greatest gift is love. “And now abides faith, hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13). Love is the catalyst, per say, the bridge to all things. Love is not a feeling. Love is a disciplined way of life. Love is an attitude of the heart that must be practiced until it is developed as part of one’s very nature. The Bible tells us that if a person belongs to Christ Jesus they have nailed their sins to the cross which causes the sinful nature to become dormant and they no longer want to be what they were before. This statement is true as one reads the scriptures,
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed their sinful nature to his cross. They don’t want what their sinful nature loves and longs for. Since we live by the Spirit, let us march in step with the Spirit. Let us not become proud. Let us not make each other anger. Let us not want what belongs to others. (Galatians 5:24-25).
Paul explains to the Galatians, “But the fruit the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy, and peace. It is being patient, kind and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself” (Galatians 5:22). Notice that the first fruit of the Holy Spirit that is mentioned is love. Love is the bridge that crosses over to have joy and peace. Love is the bridge that crosses over to being patient, kind and good to and with others. The extraordinary love of God on the inside of us is the bridge that helps us to be faithful to the things we commit to do and to be gentle of character, and have self–control when crazy things happen.
God the Father has called each and every one of His people to be an expression of God’s love on the planet earth. John wrote, “I give you a new command. Love one another. You must love one another, just as I have loved you. If you love one another, everyone will know you are my disciples” (John 13:34, 35). Sometimes loving others is not as easy as we would like it to be. But if we love God and His Word, we want to obey out of love for Him. Sometimes we have to love in faith the ones who hurt us. But Love’s grace gives one the ability to be able to love enough to forgive, to release, not to hold to account the wrong done, and to pray for the one who causes us pain. The Bible tells us,
God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows that he is joined to God. And God is joined to him….. Anyone who says he loves God but in fact hates his brother or sister is a liar. He doesn’t love his brother or sister, whom he has seen. So he can’t love God whom he has not seen. (I John 4:16, 20)
When one learns to walk in the extraordinary love of God there is room for healing, growth, prosperity, and many other doors to God’s goodness are open beyond our imagination.
We must allow God’s love to grow in us because love is what we were born for. The Bible itself is a love letter full of instruction from the Father to us teaching us by Word and example the way of true life and love. In example, “Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves. Never let the fire in your heart go out. Keep it alive. Serve the Lord” (Romans 12:9-11).
As one reads these scriptures it is easy to see that love is the bridge once again that helps us to hate evil and hold on to the good things. Love helps us to honor others, and keep the fire in our hearts in order to be able to serve God. These scriptures express the extraordinary love that only God can express by His Holy Spirit through us. “And hope will never let us down. God has poured his love into our hearts. He did it by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5). God’s Love gives a person hope.
II THE WAY OF LOVE
In speaking about love the Bible tells us:
"And now I will show you the best way of all. Suppose I speak in the languages of human beings and of angels. If I don’t have love I am only a loud gong or a noisy symbol. Suppose I have the gift of prophecy. Suppose I can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him. And suppose I have enough faith to move mountains. If I don’t have love, I am nothing at all. Suppose I give everything to the poor people. And suppose I give my body to be burned. If I don’t have love, I get nothing at all." (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
These scriptures explain in very simple words the way of love. Without love we are nothing and we have nothing and we also get nothing. Jesus gave us the example of true love. There is no mistake in that and we should follow His example.
Love is the catalyst to all good things in life. Human love is full of false expectations, false dreams and unreal demands. Human love is full of selfishness and is based on self
Human love is based on making others slaves for themselves, while God’s love is based on what can I do for others and give to others. God’s love does not make slaves of others, but rather makes them stars and sets them free to be themselves. God’s love does not make unreal demands or false expectations. The Bible tells clearly what God’s love is,
"Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interest. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up. Love never fails." (I Corinthians 13:4-8)
God’s love never fails us. Human love fails. As humans we fail each other, but God is true to all of his words; he never fails and his love never fails! Here in these scriptures is a description of God our Father and who He is and wants us to become. This is a big charge for the believer. But as we embrace the Living Word on a daily basis, His words will begin to become flesh in us as we become transformed into His image through the power of the anointed Word of God.
In the Bible one reads, “But the fruit of the Holy Spirit produces is love, joy, and peace. It is being patient, kind, and good. It is being faithful and gentle and having control of oneself. There is no law against things of this kind” (Galatians 5:22). As we can see here, love is the bridge that crosses over to the Fruits of the Spirit. Without love there is no joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control. Because love is patient and love is kind, love demonstrates self-control by not wanting what belongs to others. Love is gentle when it does not brag about itself, and is proud. Love is kind when it is not rude, looks out for its own interests or becomes angry. Love is patient when it does not keep track of wrong doing, and it never gives up. Love is faithful and joyful when good prevails, when it has the opportunity to protect, and give hope to someone in a situation that’s out of control. These are God’s attributes, and when a person gets born again these very attributes become a part of him or her. As one embraces the Word of God these attributes begin to develop on the inside. There are many other scriptures in the Word of God that show the connection between our natural lives and how the extraordinary love of God can and must become a way of life for us.
III MORE ON THE WAY OF LOVE
Jesus, through His extraordinary love, came to show us the way in this life by means of the cross. The Bible is full of scriptures that teach us about this love. “Hate stirs up fights. But love erases all sins by forgiving them.” (Proverbs 10:12). This is exactly what Jesus did through his extraordinary love. We are to do likewise, not that we should be crucified, but that we should love our neighbors as Christ loves. The love of Christ does not make life difficult for others, but find ways to help. This kind of love sacrifices it’s own self in deeds and actions in order for someone else to have what they need. This kind of love can only be revealed to one, as the person seeks God with all their heart.
Matthew wrote, “Ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. Everyone who asks will receive. He who searches will find. The door will be open to the one who knocks” (Matthew 7:7-8).When God’s love is revealed in our hearts by His Holy Spirit, it is then that one can love others as oneself. Loving ourselves is a prerequisite of loving others like Christ loves them. This is the reason one is commanded to love God selflessly. This is what helps us to love others unconditionally, and to care without reserve. This is what brings the passion of Jesus in our hearts. This is what causes us to have mercy and compassion to bring healing to a lost and dying world. As a believer learning to love God with all that is within is the first prerequisite, learning to love ourselves as Christ loves us is the second prerequisite to truly living by the love chapter in the book of First Corinthians and fruits of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five.
An individual may ask how one accomplishes that, it is a big charge. Read in your Bible about whom God is and what He does, and what He has done all along throughout history. Find out what you received when you received Christ into your life. In these processes you will find out who He is in you; through all that, you will find out who you are in Him. In the mean time be filled with the Holy Spirit and power, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. (Acts 2:2-4) This is a process that every believer must follow. The more you make a heart decision to yield to the work of God in you the more He gives Himself to you. God will make you a vessel of honor in His house.
When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was in the law,
Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind. This is the first and most important commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Everything that is written in the law and the prophets is based on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)The last part of this scripture ties the bow on the first two parts; as believers we are not asked if we want to walk in love, we are commanded to walk in love because the foundation of the whole entire (law and prophets) Word of God is love. That is who God is! Let’s confirm the Word of God by reading the Old Testament references on these two commandments. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). “Do not try to get even. Do not hold anything against one of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as yourself. I am Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).All across the Bible we will find these two scriptures confirmed in different ways, always taking us back to the same meaning of it all: the cross, the whip, the crown, the nails and finally the blood. Every one of these things, either symbolically or in reality, have a strong message of love and tell the story of Jesus. Jesus is still the greatest and only example of true love.
The following scripture shows that the love of God is far more important than having knowledge. This proves that knowledge without God is empty and useless. It’s much better to be known of God than to have all the knowledge in the world.
…We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people proud. But love builds them up. Those who think they know something still don’t know as they should. But those who love God are known by God. (I Corinthians 8:1-3)
If we want to be known by God we must get away from pride and be humble. The Bible also tells us that the love of Christ controls us in 2 Corinthians 5:14. It is his love that keeps us. His love represents what He did on the cross. If we recognize what he did on the cross then we would know that Jesus was not only a meek and humble servant of love from beginning to end, but He had integrity in speaking for He only spoke what he heard the Father saying. Jesus could hear His Father speaking because He lived in His presence and that is where we need to be. The Apostle John wrote, “So we know that God loves us we depend upon it. God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows he is joined to God. And God is joined to them” (1 John 4:16). We find in the scriptures that this extraordinary love of God is so powerful it casts out fear. When God’s love is made complete on the inside of us we will not live in fear and we become overcomers, therefore giving place to boldness. Feelings of failure and inadequacy will leave and confidence begins to come to the heart. According to John,
So love is made complete among us. We will be bold in the day God judges us. That’s because in this world we love as Jesus did. There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives fear away. Fear has to do with being punished. The one who fears does not have perfect love. (1 John 4:17)
Someday when we as believers stand in the presence of the Lord to be judged, we will not be intimidated by His presence because we learned to walk and live in His love while on earth. In His presence we are so surrounded in His love fear can not stay. His presence in us drives away the fears we may have and gives room for the perfection of that love in our hearts. As His people we must seek to live a life of extraordinary love so that others may know we are His disciples. We must always remember that faith works by the fruit of love, so without love faith can not reach its highest potential. (Galatians 5:6) We can love God because He first loved us. That love transforms our core, and causes us to desire Him, as we experience His unconditional love.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion to all, the love of God is the foundation of the Word of God, and we must become an example to the people that surround our world. This example of love was given by Jesus when He gave up His life on the cross for all of mankind. Jesus redeemed it all and gave it back to us, now what are we going to do with it?
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