HIS LOVE is TEEMING with generosity, in which lies a patient compassion, and willingness to forgive! This is obvious as HE awaits us to turn to HIM after we fumble, stumble, and bumble through time in this realm! HE WON'T give up on us; HIS LOVE HOPES for our return to HIM, as HE does NOT wish to see any perish, albeit many will make choices in their free will, that will see them paying eternal consequences...
Some of us have been given multiple chances, and opportunities to 'get with it'! How many times I should have perished, but by HIS LOVE, GRACE, and MERCY, I was offered one more time to OPEN my heart, my eyes, and my senses TO HIM! This PROVES HIS generosity of SPIRIT, and HIS WILL that we SHOULD come TO HIM!!!
KNOWING the attributes, characteristics, components, and as much of the make-up of THE LORD, and HIS LOVE, as is possible, IS significant in our ABILITY to pattern ourselves after HIM! It ISN'T merely surface; it isn't merely considering; it isn't merely beginning to understand; instead it is TAKING HIM, HIS WILL, HIS WAYS, and HIS LOVE straight to the heart, then to the spirit! There IS need to KNOW HIM as intimately as is feasible, THAT we ARE able to follow in HIS footsteps...
3+++By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4+++The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
5+++but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6+++the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
7+++Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.
8+++On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.
9+++The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10+++The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11+++But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
The love of God is perfected in him that keeps his commandments. God's grace in him attains its true mark, and produces its sovereign effect as far as may be in this world, and this is man's regeneration; though never absolutely perfect here. Yet this observing Christ's commands, has holiness and excellency which, if universal, would make the earth resemble heaven itself.
The command to love one another had been in force from the beginning of the world; but it might be called a new command as given to Christians. It was new in them, as their situation was new in respect of its motives, rules, and obligations. And those who walk in hatred and enmity to believers, remain in a dark state. Christian love teaches us to value our brother's soul, and to dread every thing hurtful to his purity and peace. Where spiritual darkness dwells, in mind, the judgment, and the conscience will be darkened, and will mistake the way to heavenly life. These things demand serious self-examination; and earnest prayer, that God would show us what we are, and whither we are going.
HIS FOREMOST COMMANDMENT IS that we LOVE HIM, then others! WHY? BECAUSE LOVE PERFECTS what is against it, and aims to diminish it! EVERY time we LOVE no matter what, we ARE PROVING HIM, and HIS LOVE to enmity, and thereby, ARE VICTORIOUS!!!
If we have one IOTA of the kind of generosity of SPIRIT which THE LORD *GOD* does, we not only PLEASE HIM, we bring HIM into the very pulse of the world, aiding in healing it!!!
We HAVE an enemy who enjoys confusing us, deceiving us, and deluding us, ALL because HE does NOT want us to SEE, HEAR, and BECOME our REALITY! This enemy USES our lack to keep us beneath our potentials, and TRUTH! And so, the more we gather FROM *GOD* WHOM IS LOVE, the more we KNOW HOW to LOVE, as well as understand WHY LOVE IS CRUCIAL TO our existence, and ALL of CREATION!!!
And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The sons of God know that their Lord is of purer eyes than to allow any thing unholy and impure to dwell with him. It is the hope of hypocrites, not of the sons of God, that makes allowance for gratifying impure desires and lusts.
May we be followers of him as his dear children, thus show our sense of his unspeakable mercy, and express that obedient, grateful, humble mind which becomes us. Sin is the rejecting the Divine law. In him, that is, in Christ, was no sin. All the sinless weaknesses that were consequences of the fall, he took; that is, all those infirmities of mind or body which subject man to suffering, and expose him to temptation.
But our moral infirmities, our proneness to sin, he had not. He that abides in Christ, continues not in the practice of sin. Renouncing sin is the great proof of spiritual union with, continuance in, and saving knowledge of the Lord Christ. Beware of self-deceit.
To be born of God is to be inwardly renewed by the power of the Spirit of God. Renewing grace is an abiding principle. Religion is not an art, a matter of dexterity and skill, but a new nature. And the regenerate person cannot sin as he did before he was born of God, and as others do who are not born again. There is that light in his mind, which shows him the evil and malignity of sin. There is that bias upon his heart, which disposes him to loathe and hate sin. There is the spiritual principle that opposes sinful acts. And there is repentance for sin, if committed. It goes against him to sin with forethought.
The children of God and the children of the devil have their distinct characters. The seed of the serpent are known by neglect of religion, and by their hating real Christians. He only is righteous before God, as a justified believer, who is taught and disposed to righteousness by the Holy Spirit. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. May all professors of the gospel lay these truths to heart, and try themselves by them.
The LOVE which *GOD* COMMANDS of us SEES us aligned to HIS WILL, and adhering to HIS WAYS, ALLOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT to do it's work in us, and ever inspiring us to do our part IN HOLINESS! Let us PRAY for the knowledge, which leads to understanding enough that we CAN LOVE as HE has bid us to; it ALL begins with LOVE FOR HIM, then spans as it must, forward!!!
REV. LWINSOR © 2016
BIBLICAL, and/or other references marked BOLDLY IN COLOURS
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