Fellowship part 4
What if everything we said and everything we did was based on the love that we have for one another? The love, in truth, that God has for us. Because that's the only way this works. "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). And we love Him BY loving each other. Whatsoever we do unto the least of them, we do unto the King, right? I like this verse even better in the Message Bible, "We, though, are going to love--love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first." It's all about receiving and releasing God's love. Letting Him love us and then loving Him back by loving each other. So when we're talking about fellowship--specifically the fellowship of the Spirit--it has to start with our relationship with God. It has to start with our communication, or communion, with Him. He is the One who fills us up. So that we can fill ourselves up to overflowing with what He has filled us up with. You can't make something out of nothing. Which is why Jesus described both us and Himself as the light of the world. It's the same light. It's HIM. He has filled us up with Himself. Created us out of Himself. We are love because God is love, and we were created in His image and likeness. We were, on the cross, conformed to the image of God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. Not so that HE would see us that way, but so that WE could see OURSELVES that way. When I hear people say, "God loves you just the way you are... He just loves you too much to leave you that way" I always get a little miffed. Because if He really loved us just the way we are... He wouldn't WANT us to be any other way. What I believe is that God DOES love us just the way we are. The way we REALLY are. Even if we don't know (or act accordingly) that we are that way. So instead of this idea of God needing to change us... I believe all God needs to do is SHOW us. Show us who we REALLY are, by showing us who HE really is. Teach us how to love by showing us how we are loved. And then it's our part, once we know who we are... once we know what we have... to do something with it. To BE who we are. To be peacemakers. To endeavor to fellowship with each other. And, listen, it takes effort. I'm not saying it doesn't. Love is the maximum effort that you can give! And when it comes to relationships, you have to give maximum effort. You get out of it what you put into it. What you feed is what will grow. What you magnify is what will manifest in your life. The Divine Order of things is for God to love us. First. And then for us to receive and release that love. Our fellowship with God defines our fellowship with each other. Because our fellowship with each other flows from our fellowship with God. Just as you can't make something out of nothing... you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. God has filled us up. With His love. With His Spirit. With Himself. We have what we need. What matters is what we do with what we have. Love is giving. It's never about getting. And, again, we have what we need. We don't need to get anything. We need to give what we've got. Share what we have and who we are with the people in our lives. That's what this life is for. That's how we fellowship with each other and with God!