The Nature of Love part 2
It's really a life or death issue. And I'm not talking about what happens "after we die." There's so much emphasis on "living right so that we can go to heaven someday when we die." As if we have to earn our spot in heaven. As if we aren't already in heaven right now... because heaven is in us right now! I'm talking about being ALIVE. When God breathed life into Adam's nostrils, Adam became a living soul. But he wasn't alive. Look at Romans 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Not just living... but truly being alive. First John 3:14 says it like this, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." See, LOVE is the difference between life and death. ABIDING or DWELLING in (His) life, or abiding in death. And look at the specifics: Loving the brethren. Loving each other. We love God by loving each other. We love God (by loving each other) because He first loved us. That's what it means to truly be alive; knowing and believing the love of Christ, and sharing that love with others. Receiving and releasing the gift of eternal life that is knowing the Father and the One He sent--knowing God as our Father and ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. And guys, that's not something we have to try to do. That's not something we CAN do on our own--with our works and labor. That's something that has to come naturally. Our verse in Romans doesn't tell us to try to be dead to sin and alive to God. It's tells us to reckon ourselves. To understand ourselves, if I can say it that way. Because of the cross we DO NOT have a "sin nature," or a beast nature. Jesus finished the work--did everything that needed to be done--so that we could be conformed into His image. We have BEEN transformed, and now we can BE transformed (into what we've already been transformed into) by the renewing of our mind. By reckoning ourselves. By knowing and believing the Word of God. The truth about us. By knowing our true nature. HIS nature. The love nature. I'm telling you, when you know and believe the Father loves you... when you understand that you are filled to overflowing with His love... His nature... His very being... then it comes naturally to you. Not, "fake it 'til you make it." But, "I love because I am loved." That's the nature of love. It has everything it needs so it can stop concentrating on itself and can instead turn the focus to taking care of others. I have what I need, so now I can share what I've got. That's the nature of love: Not trying to get, but giving what it has. For God so loved the world He GAVE... We truly live by giving our lives. By laying them down for our friends. Just like Jesus did on the cross. Just like Jesus does in and through and as us!