Habits of Effective Disciples: Love
Disciples love others because of God's example and his command.
God's kind love is not a reaction to receiving affection from someone else; His kind of love is a decision to put another person's needs above my own.
How do we measure our progress in discipleship?
One clear measurement is our love for others. Jesus told us in John 13:35 that our love for others will demonstrate that we are His disciples.
(ARE WE MAKING PROGRESS?)
FAITHFUL LOVE
Proverbs 17:17
We sometimes draw a false distinction between the teaching of the Old Testament and the New Testament. There exists a great continuity between the two. Saint Augustine once taught us that: The new is concealed in the old, and the old is revealed in the new.
God has always been a God of love, who chose to love His people. In the book of Proverbs we see examples of love described. Proverbs 18:24 teaches us that "... there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother". Even before that verse Solomon has reminded us that a friend loves at all times (17:17).
Proverbs says quite a lot about friendship. It is defined in this book of wisdom as unending love. We are told to love our God and our neighbors, not in an emotional sense, but in the sense of our actions. So the lesson is that love is not just something we feel, but rather is something we do. The true friend loves at all times. So love for another is not conditioned on the other person's actions or worth.
The New Testament has much to say about love as well. In John's Gospel, we discover that the Apostle defines God's purpose for the world in his report to us of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in chapter 3. Jesus said the most loving words as He revealed God's true love in John 3:16.
John, the beloved disciple, has a lot to say about love. He had once been called a "son of thunder" in Mark 3:17, but was transformed by Christ's love, and so changed that he was forever after known as the disciple Jesus loved.
The more we remain in God's love and God's love remains in us, the more loving we become. God's faithful love for us creates in us a fearless love for others, the same as the love He shows us.
DISCIPLES LOVE BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN LOVED BY GOD PERFECTLY.
1 John 4:7-10
We sometimes say to those we love, don't tell me you love me, show me!
God has done exactly that. Talk is cheap but commitment is costly. John wrote: "... love comes from God * (1 John 4:7)
To show his perfect love, God sends. God the Father sent His one and only Son into the world to give us life so that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9). In His perfect love, God sacrificed for us. God the Father sacrificed His only Son for us (1 John 4:10) and the Son of God sacrificed His life for us. Jesus willingly became the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
In His perfect love, God sanctifies us. John wrote ".….. he has given us of his spirit..." (I John 4:13).
Finally, God in His perfect love saves us. God had every right to punish us all, because of what we are (Ephesians 2:1-7). But instead of punishing us, God chose to love and forgive and transform us.
DISCIPLES LOVE OTHERS FEARLESSLY
1 John 4:11-12 & 16-21
We are taught strongly that we ought to love each other. John explained that when we love, God is living in us and completing His immense love in us. John wanted his readers to know that God is love and if we abide in love - we abide in God and He abides in us. Our lesson here is that God's love for us is never mature or complete or perfected within us until we become a channel for that great love to flow through us to others.
When we love, the hatred which grows from fear leaves. Why do people hate?
John makes this connection between hatred and fear. We fear judgment until we believe God loves us. (4:17). Once we let go of the fear that allows us to mistakenly think God hates us for our sin, then we are free to love others as he has commanded. A man who hates others cannot qualify as a disciple. We know that some men say they are born with certain prejudices and learn to hate others early in life, therefore they feel they cannot change. The truth on this matter of hatreds is so sweetly conveyed to us by John as he teaches us again and again that we were born again to let them go.
Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear: only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love brings it into harmony. Hatred darkens life: love lights it.
