Day 6

Love

What Is Love?

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

1 John 5:2

Love is something the world has struggled for centuries to define. With so many different people trying to figure it out, the word has become a complicated one. But it isn’t meant to be. It can actually be a very simple word when you look at it through the light of God’s Word itself. Love is explained in the commandments of God. It is in these commandments that you can learn how to love God over yourself and so to love others the way he loves them. When you simply obey God’s commandments, you find yourself loving those around you.

Simple might sound like a stretch when it comes to living out God’s Word, but that’s only because so many times we try to live it out in our flesh by being determined, strong, or devout. When we do this we fail more times than not because we are trying to achieve with the flesh what God started with his Spirit (see Gal. 3:3). If that could be done, then you’d have some serious bragging rights. You could say, “I’m so holy, look how godly I am,” to show the world what hard work you had done in obeying God’s Word. But God doesn’t want your boasting; he wants your heart. When you give him your heart, turning over your will to his and surrendering your plans to him, his Spirit does what you could never do: he teaches your heart obedience. And so he teaches you to love.

See, love isn’t something that you can do in the flesh. As we’ve seen, the motives of your flesh are selfish. So only those who are filled with the Spirit can truly ever love, because only those with the Spirit can love selflessly.

“Nonsense!” you say. “There are plenty of nonbelievers who are selfless and love others the way you are talking about.”

On the surface, that might seem to be the case. But if you look deeper, you will see selfish motives. Either they love in order to feel good about themselves, to feel happy, and to prove themselves, or they love to somehow save themselves by finding their “purpose.” That’s oftentimes what believers do too—we love, give, or serve others in order to get God’s approval and therefore salvation. But your salvation never depends on what you do. And your love doesn’t depend on who you are, but comes from who he is and what he’s done. So in order to learn to love, you must learn to give yourself up to him and to allow his Holy Spirit to teach you how to love.

But how do you do that? How do you allow the Holy Spirit to teach you to love? Well, the first thing you do is accept his love. In 1 John 4:19 we see that “We love because he first loved us”. You must understand the depth of God’s love for you. When you do, then loving his law and therefore his people becomes easy. It’s like this: As a child I adored my dad; he was my hero. I thought he was perfect. I was sure he was the smartest and strongest man on earth. I was his kid and he loved me. And because I cherished his love so much, I was never disobedient. I always did what he wanted, because I didn’t want to disappoint him. This is the same way that we are able to obey God when we realize how much he loves us. His is the kind of love you never want to disappoint, and out of that love relationship comes a deep desire to live in his will and to bring him happiness. When that is your goal, then loving him back—which includes loving those he asks you to love—becomes easy.

Listening to the life of the Spirit in you becomes easier and easier as you become mindful of him and his thoughts on love. So it is crucial to devour God’s Word and to learn what he means when he says love. As you see the depth of his love, the love fed by the Holy Spirit will grow in you in abundance.

• Discover It

God’s love for you is everywhere, but maybe you’ve missed it. You might have read about it, heard about it, or even seen some of it, but there is so much more waiting for you. Today look at life around you and see God’s love. Find his love in his gifts. Find his love in his yeses as well as his nos. As you read the Bible today, look for all the promises of God. See all the acts of God that he has done for you. Look at his beauty as you move through nature, and discover how that beauty reveals his love.

If love is patient and kind and keeps no record of wrongs, can you look at your life and see God’s love for you? Think about the ways God has loved you with a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love, and consider how you will love others.

• Pray It

Dear God, thank you for your love, your patience, and your kindness. I adore you and believe you can do no wrong. You are perfect and good, and your love endures forever. I confess that I sometimes forget that it’s your love that informs mine. I sometimes make love all about me. I am sorry for that and thankful for your forgiveness. Please teach me today to love others the way you love me. Amen.

• Be the Bible

It has been said that you might be the only Bible that some people ever read. That means that your life as you live it in accordance with the Bible will help them to see God in you. Today consider his Word. Study it and ask his Spirit to help you to live it. Know that you can’t do it on your own, but that he can and will do it through you. Think about the people in your life, both believers and non-believers, who need a word from God, and consider how you can be—and eventually explain—that word.