Mentor
LOVE (By Pastor Jude Okwubune)
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”. (1st John 4:7, 8)
God is love, this does not say that God is lovely, is full of love or has much love. God is love just as water is water; every expression of pure love or loveliness is from God. God is He who makes us to love and the world exists on the love of God (1st John 4:19). We would all be destroyed without love; everybody needs love to give out. God is love, when you are born of God (born again), you operate in God’s love. People talk of the “spirit of love” as if it is an extra anointing or gift. The Spirit of love is God the Holy Spirit. Love is of God and expresses the Spirit of God in a person; it just flows out of a child of God if you do not restrain it. That is why we are commanded to love one another (1st John 4:7, 8), that is, to just let love flow out of us, not waiting for it to happen to us.
AGAPE LOVE: Agape is Godly love that transcends tribe, nation, race or social status; it is unconditional. Agape love has been described as the “intentional response to promote well-being”. Agape love is neither merely reactive nor inactive but very proactive and selfless. Agape love:
- Is the love God commands as a fulfill of his righteousness (Matthew 22:37-40)
- Flows freely from true children of God (1st John 4:19-21)
- Without love you are nothing but fake children of God and false prophets no matter how anointed -of the devil you are!!! (1st Corinthians 13:1-3 + 2nd Corinthians 11:13-15)
WHAT REALLY IS LOVE? There can be no description of love outside of God who is love, this is love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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 put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”. (1st Corinthians 13:4-13)
DISCUSSIONS
- Faith, Hope and Love remain; but why is love the greatest?
- How can we be anointed to walk and live in love?
- What really is Agape, love?
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