1 John 3:19-24 – 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
We are called to a simple faith, “and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21).” That if we “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe I your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus gave us a simple rule so that we know exactly how to live, we are to love God with all that we are and to love each other (everyone) as we love ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). If we have faith in the person and work of Jesus, we will love Him. If we love Him we will obey Him, just as proof of Jesus’ love for the Father was His obedience to Him (John 15:9-10, 14). The overarching commandment of the Lord to us is to love.
So we know that we belong to God because He has put His Holy Spirit within us and the proof of that is the incredible love, not of this world, that we have for God and for each other. Not any love, but the love of God. The love of God that is behind our salvation and is the love of God that should live within us and will cause us to love and obey God and to love each other. As God’s love draws us to Him, as we love Him and each other, so the love of God is complete (1 John 2:5, 1 John 4:17, Ephesians 3:19). Love is the answer. Not a silly nilly mindless love, but a serious, devoted, informed and wise love that is all encompassing and infinite because this love originates in the heart of God. It is a love that rushes to help, rushes to heal and encourage, and that rushes to be the representative of the great I AM who is the all, the everything, the one Answer to us all in every situation and at all times.
If we remember a thousand rules, if we remember ten thousand rules, or even if we can remember one hundred thousand rules, we can be assured that there will be times when a circumstance will come up that does not have a direct answer in one of those rules. Jesus has not called us to remember endless laws and rules. Heavens no! We are free from all that. However, by no means does that mean that we will not obey and fulfill all the rules, and infinitely beyond. Jesus taught that the physical act is merely the product of what was first in the heart. You see the man whose heart and soul are pure, whose heart is filled with love for God, will not make a practice of entertaining evil things because it is not the rule He lives by, but by the Spirit, which is the love of God within us. We think to ourselves “What would Jesus do.” Yes, I know it may seem cliché, but that does not mean it is not true. And it is not that we need to remember a law to know what Jesus would do, we know what Jesus will do because we have read His Word and because the Holy Spirit has exploded the Word of God within us. That means we know Him. If we know Him, we know what He would do. We don’t have to ask if we should love this person or that one because we want to be like Him and we know He loves all men and women. So we rush to do the loving thing because we love God and want to please Him. We want to obey Him because we love Him. So the commandment to love God covers everything. If we truly love God then we will love each other. If we truly love each other we will not only not do wrong, but we do everything we can for each other to express that love to each other. Yes, we do that to please God, but we needn’t think to ourselves “Well, I will do it because it will please God.” Rather we will because we have His love within and what is unnatural to the world is “natural” to us because we love God and have His love within us. Therefore the love of God has grown within so that it, rather than our flesh, motivates us. What is natural to the flesh no longer dominates our intent and will but rather the Holy Spirit of God that fills our hearts is what now motivates us. Here is the beauty of the love of God manifestly displayed. Yes, we love others because God has directed us to, but we do not love each other as some mechanical obedience to a law, but because it is what we do because it is who we are. We do so because it is who God Himself has made us to become. So God loves us, we love God, His love changes us, our love of God changes what we do from rote obedience to joyful expression of the new creature we have become. We don’t have to think to love God. We do and so our lives express that. We don’t have to love each other. We do and so our lives express that. We are new creatures with new natures and that new nature is love. And that new nature of love means the old desire to sin fades to black as the new nature of love replaces the black with the light of who our God is, love. Wonderful! Praise God, so wonderful!
Love indeed is the answer. Not love as the world knows it. But the love of God living in us and changing us. When love rules the day, strife, fear and hatred fade. Not that we will agree on everything. You can still like rainbow sherbet ice cream while I like vanilla ice cream. You can like this political candidate and I can like another. None of these things will separate us from loving each other. God had a grand plan. A plan of love, forgiveness and redemption. May we be the extended arms of the great I AM and reach out with His love to all. If we do that, our hearts are at rest, our consciences don’t condemn us, our hearts are free and pure, our prayers are answered and the proof of our eternity with God, the Holy Spirit within, gives us a clear path to the ear of God. Then we know we please God because we know we do what He has commanded. And even if our heart should mess up, and we think that God is condemning us, we know that we are forgiven and loved by Him, because we know Him, we know His heart and we know Him and His heart because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us through His Word. Family, God is good and He loves us. Let us love one another.
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.