Faith and Love – The Love of God in us
In my previous articles titled “Faith and …” I’ve offered my observations and opinion on various aspects of our faith as believers in Jesus Christ. In other articles I have tried to relate my understanding on various emotions, where and how they originate, how they affect us, and most importantly, how to properly resolve them. In addition I have also attempted to examine, from scripture, the commandment to love as God intended. When we consider all of these issues together could it be possible, perhaps even probable, that our feelings of love may at times be invalid and in need of resolution?
Within the scripture love is used as both a noun and a verb. It seems that as a noun it refers to an inherent nature that has a propensity to favor or approve of someone or something. Our propensity to favor God is only inherent in the spirit man as a consequence of His grace working through our belief in Jesus Christ resulting in our spirit birth. To act on our belief in Jesus as Christ is to obey His commandment to love and these actions define the verb love with respect to the love of God in us. This provides us with a means for resolving the feelings of love, which if valid, are the result of those actions. It would then follow that in order to have valid feelings of love we must love and to love we must have love. Any perceived love of God is valid only if we first have inherited His nature through the spirit birth and have chosen to act on our belief in Jesus by obeying His commandments. Any other feeling that we attribute to the love of God would be invalid. I suspect that many people act on their belief in a god they’ve defined for themselves in saying and doing things that are contrary to the true nature of His love. These actions result in an invalid feeling of love for God. It is irresponsible to accept such feelings without consideration and will certainly result in God’s judgment. I suspect that of all our emotions we should first and always resolve the feelings that we attribute to the love of God in us by measuring our actions against the commandments of Christ.
offered by Kc | 1/31/2006 02:37:00 AM
9 Comments:
I do not feel at all able to say I love Christ. I hear others talking about how much they love Christ, but I cannot understand how they are able to feel so strongly if they are really being honest.
I feel thankful to Christ for saving me and desire to please Him, but I am really not sure of my love for Him.
Aristotle had some interesting comments on love in the 'Nicomachean Ethics'.
Aristotle asks the question, who loves more, the giver ot the receiver?
He concludes that the giver loves more than the receiver.
The giver obviously loves the receiver or he would not have given. On the other hand, the receiver probably does not love the giver that much, because the giver's existence reminds him of the obligation to returnt he favour.
Aristotle saw thsi as essential human nature which was basically good. We would see such an attitude as perverse and sinful, though characteristic of humanity.
I know that the sinful old man in me is embarassed and ashamed of what Christ has done and is not inclined to love Christ.
God Bless
Matthew
Matthew I love and admire you for many things, not the least of which is your open honesty. While I cannot judge your heart I must tell you that if all I have read from you is true, then you not only love our Lord but you have a great love for Him that goes well beyond the love of many who rightly claim they love Him. Could I ask how you perceive love in yourself? Do you equate it with the romantic love that excites the senses? I understand that to love Christ is to fully accept and approve of all that He is and has done and that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. As I stated in this post it is not possible to keep them if we do not first possess this love toward Him. Is it possible it is in your definition of love that you take exception to your own love for Him?
I suppose I do fully approve all that Christ has done and I do seek to keep His commandments, though not consistently.
Kc, thank you for this thought-provoking post. We talk about love more than we actually live it out.
I see the biblical mandate in Luke 10 to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor. I see that loving God means to trust Him, know Him, obey Him; to conform to His will. Loving your neighbor, as Jesus shows in the Good Samaritan passage, means doing something, (in this case, showing mercy) not just talking about it.
Such wonderful wisdom, Kc! Thanks.
Matthew I have confidence in God and in you that whatever understanding is needed it will be both granted and gladly recieved. You're often in my prayers.
Karen thanks again for your encouragement and for interacting with this post and especially for the scriptural reference. I am considering adding my scriptural references at the end of the article for those who would like to know the foundation of my post.
Kristi you're so kind and I pray you've made good progress in your recovery today.
Is posible for love the animals? and the islamics?
Dear Corry and Casey :)
Thank you so much for your e-card.
It's so sweet of you =D
Gianluca welcome!
Yes, we should love all men. Now concerning animals I know many of us love our pets. ;-)
Audrey, it is an honor and a blessing for both of us to be able to do so. ;-)
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