I saw love in action the other day, and for once, the experience didn’t fly right past me. Looking back, I liken the experience to a backstage pass where everything is accessible. What I witnessed was not a love you might experience day to day. I saw God’s love move fluidly through what appeared to be a painful situation on the surface. To stop, acknowledge God, praise, and thank him for a beautifully creative, intricate weave of love was such a gift.
I want to share what God showed me, through his word, about love in action because I’m guessing someone out there also needs to be able to “see”, and what I hope to convey is the effect this experience had on me. Here goes.
I am nothing outside of God’s love moving in and through me.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. 12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
—A very clear directive so, how do you come up with this love that Jesus has? You don’t.
1 John 4:7-21 Love Comes from God
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrificed for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us 13: By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because He first loved us.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
1 Cor 13:4-7 tells us what love will look like and how to recognize love in action but it doesn’t say I must have all of those things working perfectly in me before God’s love can move through me.
1 Cor 13:8 - Love never fails because God never fails. The work on our heart he starts, he finishes. His love, grace, and mercy work together to bring love to the surface in us.
Faith, Hope, Love - there’s a reason love is greatest - God is Love. Without his love we are nothing, and faith and hope are not possible.
Jesus died for me - the ultimate example of love in action
The Holy Spirit in me is Love - I cannot have love without Him. He covers me with grace and creates the desire for love when I have no love in me. Then he allows me to see where grace covered me so I am not proud. My belief in His love for every part of me, right where I am, frees me from the need for self-preservation and acts that come from performance-based acceptance.
When I can move through situations and experiences that look like the opposite of love (fear, anxiety, impatience, pride, etc.) it is only because of the Holy Spirit (He uses those situations too). I can choose to lay these situations and experiences that cause/caused fear on the altar to God, allowing His love to flow through me with grace covering me. If I'm not reacting with love then fear, pride, etc., is my motivation and will never bring a good result. Only because of, and through God can I give Him all of me on the altar.
When God’s love moves through me I am free! It is no longer me, but God! God’s love is not of this world and does not play by the world's rules. God's love is not ordinary, conceptual, predictable, containable, nor does it have a formula we can learn, but will be known by the fruit that hangs out in the open for all to see.
God doesn’t say love will always be delivered in a pretty package, but it won't come wrapped in condemnation. It may prick and stir you to repentance, but you will not see condemnation as the driver. God’s love is powerful; it can move through loveless spirits and manifest peace and healing on the other side because of His grace that covers us while we longingly wait for Him to bring clarity and light to darkness.
I am in awe and wonder as I contemplate the beauty of love’s creative flow and intricately woven threads that engineer the how, when, where, and who to meet my needs.
1 John 4:16 says: “And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” - It’s a process. There are parts of our hearts that aren't yet able to believe God loves us, and when God heals those areas, belief replaces doubt and submission of these areas to God is possible.
1 John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.” - As God heals my heart, I am free to choose where once choice wasn't even an option. Love, through the Holy Spirit, is now being perfected in me.
My mind understands the concept of God's love but can't generate it without him. 1 John 4:7 tells me: Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God…”. Love only comes from God - I can’t generate it; only he does.
Romans 7:15-20 & 25: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16: And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 25: Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! - As God delivers me, those areas are free to love.
All parts of our heart are not in alignment with God yet and as God heals those areas, the Holy Spirit is perfecting our ability to love (1 Jn 4:12). I’m not talking about the being a good person and caring about others kind of love. Im talking about sacrificial love where you lay down your desires at the altar.
We can pray the Holy Spirit will reveal where love is not present in our hearts, repent, and ask Him to heal those areas. We can do nothing without God.
Whew!
Very well articulated and much needed among the body of Christ as we live in this world.