I DON’T KNOW HOW TO LOVE YOU WITHOUT GOD

 Matthew 22:37-34 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” 

I don’t know how to love my neighbour, except that I learn to love God first. 

2 Thessalonians 3:5  May  the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of  the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. 

In order to have that kind of love for others, we need to love God wholeheartedly first.

In order to love God wholeheartedly, we must understand how  much He love us. He loves us enough that He sent His Son to die for us! 

John 3:16 For  God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever  believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

God did that because He loves us. It’s His free gift to us even though we are undeserving. 

We are undeserving of His free gift, yet through the blood of Jesus, God see us as righteous! 

I Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

God’s example of 1 Corinthians love:

He is patient with us – and waits until we say yes

He keeps no record of our wrongs – the blood of Jesus has washed us clean

He never gives up on us – the Holy Spirit is our personal coach

He is not boastful or proud – Jesus humbled Himself for us

He doesn’t demand His own way – He gave us a free will

He does not rejoice in injustice – He always has our backs

His love endures through every circumstance

Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 

To further understand His love for us is to understand our new identity in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21  This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And  all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through  Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For  God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting  people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of  reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

John 14:12-14  “I  tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I  have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the  Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

Ephesians 2:10  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Romans 8:11   The  Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just  as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your  mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

1 Peter 2:9 But  you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal  priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can  show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness  into his wonderful light.

1 John 4:4  But  you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory  over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than  the spirit who lives in the world

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Once we understand who we are in Christ, and what salvation really  represents, we cannot help but love and worship God and give Him glory  for saving us.

WOW that is amazing love

We cannot consider ourselves as the world considers us, otherwise that is offensive to God.

Who are we to see ourselves contrary to how God see us and who He says we are? Otherwise we see the cross as invalid. 

Remember, we are saved by God’s grace not by our works? So, we really are no better than our neighbours.

But once we are saved, He sees us as forgiven and righteous because of Jesus.

Yet if we still see ourselves as broken and lost, we must not love  ourselves very much and if that is the case, we can’t love our  neighbours as ourselves.

When we get this, is when we eagerly desire to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. 

Then to love ourselves is to see ourselves as God see us. 

Only now can we learn to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Now what about those neighbours!

Are we willing to extend the examples of 1Corinthians love to our neighbours as God did with us?

Ask Yourself:

#1 – Are you patient with those who irritate you?

#2 – Are you kind to those who aren’t so nice to you?

#3 – Are you jealous of those who have more than you?

#4 – Are you boastful, proud or rude, thinking more of yourself. 

#5 – Do you demand your own way?

#6 – Are you easily irritated?

#7 – Do you keep record of being wronged and think about payback? 

#8 – Do you rejoice in injustice?

#9 – Do you easily give up on others when they just don’t seem to get it?

#10 – Do you give up easily and lose faith not realizing that God has a plan for your neighbours too?

Through our sinful eyes, our neighbours may seem ‘undeserving’ of our  love, but we must remember how undeserving we were of God’s love and  how He eagerly hunted us down.

God loves our neighbours just as much as he loves us!

Prayer: “Dear  Father, helps me to see others how you see them and how you see us.  Help me to see that their lives, hopes and dreams are as meaningful as  my own. Helps me to love them so much that I would want to see then in  heaven. Father open the doors so that I may show your love within me to  them. Give me the strength, love, wisdom, courage, and patience to do  this. Help me to be patient, kind, humble, and giving. Help me to  forgive others and keep no record of wrong, in the Name of Jesus. Amen“