In the last two meditations we saw what Jesus told us about divine love for God the Father and God the Son. We also looked at the ways the apostles echoed Jesus’ teaching on divine love.
This time we want to see what else the apostles wrote about Christlike love for God.
a.) Christlike love for God is a gift from God’s Spirit. It also fulfils the first and greatest command of God’s Law.
First of all the apostle Pauls states clearly that it is God’s Spirit who produces true and pure Christlike love in our hearts. It is a divine gift we receive after conversion and through rebirth.
The apostle Paul reminds the followers of Jesus in Rome of the start of their walk with Christ: “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:2)
The apostle stresses to the Christians in the province of Galatia (modern Turkey) that “The fruit of the Spirit is love...”
(Galatians 5:22)
For the followers of Jesus in Ephesus (modern Turkey) Paul prays: “... Out of his [God’s] glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ...”
(Ephesians 3:16-18)
Here the apostle speaks in one sentence about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, resulting in the presence of Christ and his love in our hearts.
Having received God’s Spirit and his love, Paul encourages his fellow Christians: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)
In his first letter the apostle John points out: “... love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.....
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.....
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
(1 John 4:7-8. 13.15. 16).
In all these texts we see that Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins, the gift of God’s Spirit, and the outpouring of God’s love in our hearts through His Spirit, are all part and parcel of God’s saving grace.
So, what about God’s first and greatest command in the Sinai Covenant to love Him “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).
As I have by nature a selfish and rebellious heart, how could I ever fulfil this command by myself?
Indeed, as Paul writes to the Christians in Rome: “Love is the fulfilment of the Law (of God).” (NIV Romans 13:10)
It is only the Spirit of Christ in me who makes me able to fulfil God’s Law. Paul writes to the followers of Jesus in Galatia:
“I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.
The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants.
And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires.
These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.
But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the Law (of God)” (Galatians 5:16-18)
Again Paul stresses the same truth some verses later:
“When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love .....
Here there is no conflict with the Law (of God).
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.” (Galatians 5:22-25)
(to be continued)
The Bible verses Galatians 5:16-18 and Galatians 5:22-25 are quotes of the New Living Translation. The other texts are quoted from the New International Version.
About the Sinai Covenant and the New (Messianic) Covenant, see meditation 33.
About Jesus' love for God the Father, see meditation 15.
About conversion, see meditations 19-26.
About rebirth or baptism in God’s Spirit, see meditations 27-34, 37 and 44.
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