Spiritual Love
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 6715 |
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January 07, 2018 |
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 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
If you have the faith to spend the end of a year and the beginning of the upcoming year offering up a New Year's Service in the sanctuary, you are truly blessed believers. God loves such children, and He wants to give the greatest gift to them and lead them to the best way. The greatest gift of all is love. Today, let's delve into how to bear the fruit of spiritual love as recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
1. Why is it that love is the greatest of faith, hope, and love?
Faith is the treasure of treasures. It is written that without it you cannot please God. Only through faith can you gain salvation, have eternal life, and enter heaven. When you have hope you will want to take the better heavenly dwelling places by force and try to become sanctified. Thus, faith and hope are what we should keep until we enter the heavenly kingdom.
Then, why does God say love is the greatest among the three? It is because we will be given glory to become God's true sons in the eternal heaven only when we achieve love. Of course, we can receive salvation and enter heaven with faith, and we can take better dwelling places through hope. But without love we cannot enter New Jerusalem. The city of New Jerusalem recorded in Revelation 21 is the fruit of love, and the attributes that the city wall's foundation stones symbolize are synthesized into one trait, which is perfect love. The purpose of God's human cultivation is also to share His love with His true children.
While we are leading our Christian lives on the earth, we need faith and hope. But once we enter heaven through the faith needed to receive salvation, we no longer need faith. We also no longer need hope, for what we had hoped for has been achieved. The one thing we keep forever in heaven is love. That is why God wants us to achieve love above all else. Among many gifts written in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the greatest gift is love (1 Corinthians 12:31). When we achieve unchanging love that is spiritual love, then we can receive unlimited answers (Proverbs 8:17).
God wants to repay what we have done and allows us to reap what we have sown. If we love God from the heart, He will repay it with His love that is so great and amazing. That is, He will bless our souls to prosper; allow everything to go well with us, and allow us to enjoy good health (3 John 1:2). God will surely keep His word (Numbers 23:19).
Throughout the history of Manmin, the love of God and the Lord has been continually manifested at much deeper levels. We learned about the perfect love in which love and justice are balanced. We learned the way to fill up the shortages and deficiencies of love. We even learned the seven levels of the depth of God's love which is the core of His heart. Also, by seeing the shepherd's sacrifice in the providence of God, believers experienced the love of God. They realized that God never gives up on them and gives them opportunities until the end. Those believers who had felt God as the God of justice came to feel His love from the heart and say He is Love.
Moreover, the power whose works have increased day by day in this church is also the fruit of love. In the power is the love of God who desires to save souls that are dying in this corrupt generation. The power comes from this love with which He wants people to believe the Lord, receive salvation, and increase hope for heaven which is real and not for fleshly world which is only vanity. This has all been done through showing the spiritual world. As said, Manmin is the church filled with love and has borne abundant fruit of love. The fruit has been borne through the church members as well.
Then, let's now look into what we have to do in order to bear the perfect fruit of spiritual love.
2. To bear the fruit of spiritual love
1) We should learn spiritual love diligently.
To bear the perfect fruit of spiritual love, we should learn the Word of God first. That is, as a minimum, we must have a basic knowledge of it.
I have preached about spiritual love several times. The most representative message is "The Love Chapter" series which explains the basic levels of love recorded in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. For example, the first verse of the chapter says, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." As recorded, we should understand the importance of spiritual love. Also, we should learn every single characteristic of love in detail as they are written, saying, "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant…"
Roughly knowing about them and vaguely remembering them just as a string of words is not enough. You should clearly understand the messages and arm yourself with them. Just listening or reading the lessons once is not enough. You have to let the Word remain in your life and reflect upon yourself by the Word. Even if you've already entered spirit, you should arm yourself with the messages in order to fill your shortage and deficiency of love.
Then God will help you discern when it comes to what to have in heart, what to say, and what to do by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will work for you to discern between spiritual love and fleshly love and between love to seek others' benefit and love to seek one's own benefit.
2) We should diligently practice spiritual love.
John 13:34 reads, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." 1 John 3:18 says, "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth."
You must not just learn and understand the love of God, but you have to practice love for others. You should help the needy by saving from what you have. Even if nobody recognizes you or what you do, you should help others with joy and thanks from the heart. While working and volunteering, you should sacrifice yourself with all your body for the kingdom of God without desire to receive praise from others or to reveal yourself. Also, you should pray with patience for those who have weak faith until they grow and change, and you should counsel them. You should also pray for people who give you a hard time without hatred or resentment.
You should embrace any kind of fault of others with the heart that is soft and gentle like cotton. You should feel happy when others are better off as if it is you who is better-off. You should give good things to others first no matter how big and you should put others' benefits before your own benefits. You should try not to get angry even when you seem unable to help it and you must not pass judgment and condemnation. You should not have any evil thoughts.
You should bear, believe, and hope all things even if trials come to you. When you practice what you learn about spiritual love, you can possess spiritual love (Philippians 4:9).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I hope that in 2018 you will be filled with spiritual love and receive answers to whatever you ask for. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will share love forever with God and the Lord as God's true children in New Jerusalem.
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