October 15, 2015
Last week we looked at what love is or is not according to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 (also known as the Love chapter). This week we will look at what love looks like as it is worked out in the believer. Let's be clear that we are not capable of love on our own ! God's word says that the heart is evil above all things and also says we love because God loved us first !!! So when true love is in the believer certain things will be obvious to everyone around. This is how we will know who belongs to God in heart and not just in words !!! When God's word tells us to judge the fruit, He is talking about being able to judge between good and evil, and more importantly between sheep and wolves in sheep's clothing !
We will take a look at 5 versus that will show some of the things that true biblical love should produce. Love is talked about hundreds of ways and times in the Bible. I picked 5 to show a couple things that every believer should be able to judge when we are trying to decide if the spirit we are looking at is good or evil.
1) Psalm 5 : 11 But let all those who rejoice who put their trust in you; Let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them; let those also who love your name be joyful in you .
Look at the key words in this verse rejoice, trust, shout for joy, defend . The final line sums up what we should know. If someone loves your name they will be joyful in God !!! Have you ever met someone who always has a certain peace and joy in them no matter what they are going through ? This could be a clue that this person has the Holy Spirit in them !!
2) 1 John 5 : 1 Who ever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him.
Sometimes it is hard to see a simple truth in God's word because of the language and sentence structure. The first sentence is the truth about being born again !! If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, you are born again !!! The next part tells about Jesus is the bridge between God and man. If you love Jesus then you will love the one who sent Him. So when we are judging the Spirit if they are not born again....you will know they are NOT capable of biblical love.
3) Psalm 97 : 10 You who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
One of the prayers I pray is a lot is to look at sin and to see sin as God sees it. If you hate evil you have the love of God in you. In return God preserves the souls of his saints....We get to go to Heaven. The second line confirms this by restating that God delivers his saints of the hands of evil (the devil).
4) Deuteronomy 30 : 20 that you may love the Lord your God that you may obey his voice and that you may cling to Him ....
This verse shows that if a person loves God he will listen and obey God's voice. How do we do that ? By reading God's word and doing what it says. So if you are trying to judge the spirit in a person and they live their life NOT according to God's word you should walk away ! The only way you can know what that looks like is to know God's word !!! Get busy reading so you are not deceived !!
5) 1 John 2 : 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know we are in Him.
This restate in the new testament what was discussed in the last verse. John is saying if you keep God's word then the love of God is in you and that is how we know we are saved. BUT you can only know that about yourself and others if you know God's word !!!
Next week we will start on Faith as the next fruit of the Spirit. I hope you enjoyed and learned from todays lesson. Hope to see you next time !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment