I know you have been hurt and you think some offenses are unforgivable, you have tried to let go of some hurtful memories but you haven’t been able to. Let me take you on a journey of the unconditional love of God called Agape. When other types of love fail, Agape never fails! There is no offense unforgivable in Agape, this is the love nature in your spirit, the real you.
1 John 2:7- Brethren I write no new commandment to you but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
1John3:11- and this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
While growing up, there were some simple meals I couldn’t make until I had to watch my mother do it. As simple as it was, it wouldn’t come out perfectly until you learn it. Few examples are pap and oat. So also is the message of Love, a lot of us are familiar with the Word but we have not learnt the act or deed of it. The truth is you would never understand how to love until you know how God loves. Love is not just a language, it is an action. In order to love others, you must understand how God loves you. We were commanded to love not based on our own terms but on God’s terms and standard. John 13:34-35- A new commandment I give to you, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER; AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, THAT YOU ALSO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. by this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
A little reminder, the real you is your spirit, and it has the love nature (Romans 5:5). A new man in Christ has the capacity to love. The crux of this post is Agape,unconditional love of God. God’s love expression towards you includes the following
1. God’s love for you is not based on performance. If you are waiting for people to be perfect before you express the love of God towards them, my dear, you are wrong. Such love is not from God.
Romans 5:5- But GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS OWN LOVE TOWARDS US, in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR Us.
Romans 5:10- For IF WHILE WE WERE ENEMIES, WE WERE RECONCILED TO GOD,through the death of His son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
God’s grace came to pick us from our lowest state, not because we were deserving, we were already doomed for destruction because of the sin nature but the love of God was expressed to us through the death of His son to deliver us from sin and it’s consequences. So if you are waiting for people to be perfect before you express the love of God to them, take a deep breath and remember how God saved you.
2. Love is a sacrifice. If anyone ever told you love is convenient, you just accepted a fable. The unconditional love if God is sacrificial. Salvation may be free to you but it costed God something, it was His only begotten so, His most precious gift, I hope your mind is now being renewed to the right way to love. God did not wait for us to clean up our act, improve our attitude, straighten up or become perfect before sending Jesus, if we had done all that, we still could not have been saved, but when we were at our very worst, God gave us His very best! This is love! For example, Forgiving people is not easy, especially when you were hurt by people very dear to you but when you remember when and how you were forgiven by God, how you were a notorious sinner but grace found you, how your best works couldn’t buy you salvation but Christ blood did, you just learnt how best to forgive.
3. Love is paying a debt you did not owe.
John 3:16- For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. If you followed Jesus to Calvary or saw him between those two thieves, you would think the death of the cross was easy. He was nailed like the other two thieves, so what’s so special about the death of the cross, someone said. Well, the thieves were paying for a sin they committed, CHRIST on the other hand, didn’t commit any sin, HE BECAME SIN (2 Corinthians 5:21). The sin of the whole world was laid on Him, the past, present and future sins, of the people that were living and people yet unborn. It was indeed a heavy cross,a debt He didn’t owe. Trust me, Jesus had the power to reject the death of the cross, but instead, HE CHOSE TO DIE. (John 10:17-18: Therefore, my father loves me, because I LAY DOWN MY LIFE that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down myself. I HAVE THE POWER TO LAY IT DOWN and I have the power to take it again…..
Christ didn’t have to die, He chose to die. Love is not about having multiple choices, Love is the only choice. Christ chose love, I choose it also, not sure about you. You know I could have just listed the expressions of love in 1Cor 13, but you might still have a struggle doing that, but if you understand how God loves, it will shapen your understanding on what love is and how to express it…..You are a love being, you were loved while you were undeserving, you are to love others the same way. When you express love to people, you are revealing the God in you to others because God is love.
TO BE CONTINUED
