Total Pageviews

Monday, May 9, 2011

Ingredients to a proper faith in Christ: Agape


"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love."--2 Peter 1:5-7.  The seventh and most important ingredient to a proper faith in Christ, LOVE.

Love.  I have spoken on the subject before and the Bible touches on this subject several times. The concept of love just cannot be emphasized enough in the life of a Christian.

Love.  The word for love here is agape (A sacrificial love; written in Greek letters above) whereas brotherly kindness is phileo (a fond affection).  As my instructor Mike Hite put it, we need to move from phileo to agape love.  An agape love is the kind of love Christ had for us.  Christ expects us to show Him the same love He showed us by dying on the cross for our sins.  But how?

Love.  Well the Scriptures tell us that to love God is to obey His commands.  More specifically 1 John 3:10-11 tell us that if we do not love our brother, we are not of God so we should love one another.

Love.  Love is of course a very broad concept both in the Scriptures and in life in general. Love is more than just emotion.  Love is more than just physical as the world paints it. The Scriptures tell us that love is an action.

Love.  1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is a very good description of what agape love is all about.

Love. Bottom line love is more than just an emotion, it's an action. God's love was put into action when He gave His Son for our sins on the cross.

Love. Since love is an action, my encouragement to you tonight is this. This week take some time to supply your faith with this ever crucial ingredient by sacrificing something of yourself for another brother and sister. Maybe you can sacrifice time to help someone in need. Maybe it's sacrificing money you could have spent on yourself and using it to help someone else meet their need. This calls for wisdom. The choice is yours but take time to show someone else agape love, especially if they are a member of the the Lord's church.

Love. Finally, since love is an action, if you claim to love God and have not yet obeyed the gospel by believing that Jesus is the Son of God by repenting of your sins and confessing Christ as Lord and being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, do not delay or as my brother Brad Harrub put it, "What are you waiting on?"

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!

No comments:

Post a Comment