Chapter One
Love - The Way of God
Love is the great key to our salvation. Love is the only
way the message of the Bible can be truly understood. Love
is also the greatest commandment. Jesus said that the
first and greatest commandment is “to love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
with all your mind and with all your strength. The
second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There
is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12 v 28-31).
We can go to college, excel at sport, or as an inventor, yet
the Bible teaches there is something far greater than all
these achievements offer. What is it? It is love, and God’s
offer of eternal love. Love is the reason for our existence
and the reason for this beautiful planet on which we live.
God wants love to fill every aspect of our lives.
Jesus said that “all the law and the prophets”, i.e. the Old
Testament writings, “hang on these two great
commandments of love” (Matthew 22 v 40). From
this we understand that we are to read the Bible from the
perspective of love. And because “God is love”
(1 John 4 v 8), He could not be the author of a book that is
not about love.
We see many examples of true love in action: the
dedication of a parent to a sick child, the devotion of a true
friend in difficult times, and the giving of one person’s life
to save another. These are similar to the love Jesus has for
us. He willingly gave His life for us so we can be saved.
He is now devoted to us at all times and dedicated to
helping us in our weakness as humans.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ time, the Pharisees and
Sadducees, believed they followed God’s laws. They had an
amazing knowledge of the Bible and were always at the
temple in Jerusalem, praying, fasting and keeping the Jewish
feasts. Yet they missed the purpose of all their learning and
worship, because it did not lead them to truly love God
and His people. Love was not their focus or goal.
The apostle Paul was once a Pharisee, and it was only
when he became a Christian, that he learned the true
purpose of God’s commands. Paul told Timothy, “the
purpose of God’s commands is love from a pure heart, from
a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (1Timothy 1 v 5).
For us, too, the purpose of the Bible is to create in us a new
heart – a ‘pure heart’, a heart that grows in love to God
and all people.
A man once came to Jesus and asked him, “What shall I do to
inherit eternal life?”(Luke 10 v 25-37) This is one of the
most important questions we could ask when we decide
we really want to follow God. The answer was “to love God
and our neighbour as our-self.” Jesus then gives us an
example of what is meant by our neighbour, and what
true love means in practice. In the story, the neighbour is
anyone who needs help. The man who was truly neighbourly
cared for the unfortunate man who had been robbed and
beaten, and took him on his donkey to an inn. He gave money
to the manager of the inn to look after him until he was well.
He told the manager he would return later and give him
any extra money that was needed. The point of Jesus’ story
is that true love of our neighbour continues till they are
healed, and applies to everyone.
The apostle John, one of the close followers of Jesus, writes
about what love is, what it has achieved and how it treats
others. He says that love leads us from death to life (1John
3 v 14), and that now, as Christians, we need to dwell in love
as God does (1John 4 v 7-21).
Our witness to the world is our true love for one another.
Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one
another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if
you have love for one another.”(John 13 v 34-35).
In conflict situations, we need to work towards
forgiveness. Our desire to truly reconcile with each other and
to dwell in love is our witness to the Gospel. Jesus said, ‘I
pray for all disciples that will believe in me – that they all may
be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they all
may be one in us, that the world may believe that you
have sent me.’(John 17 v 20-21).
Paul emphasized this when he said that even though Jesus’
followers may have the gift of speaking in every language, t
he ability to tell the future, amazing knowledge of the Bible,
strong faith and have given all their money to feed the poor
or have been burnt to death for their beliefs, all these
are worth nothing before God unless the motive to do these
things is love (1Corinthians 13 v 1-3). Why? Because “God
is love” (1John 4 v 3-8), and the only way we can be in Him
is when His love dwells in us.
In 1Corinthians 13 v 4-8 we have one of the most
beautiful descriptions of true love: “Love suffers long and
is kind, love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not
puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own,
is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in
iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
Through growing in these characteristics, we come closer
to God, and to a greater understanding and appreciation
of Him. Jesus gave us another powerful explanation of true
love in Matthew 7 v 12, “All things that you would have
men do to you, even so do to them, for this is the law
and the prophets”. The way we want to be treated is the way
we need to treat others.
It is interesting that the second great command is “to
love your neighbour as YOURSELF”. We need to love
ourselves first, in order to truly love our neighbour. How do
we love ourselves? We are special, not because of any
inherent goodness, but because of God’s love for us. Of
ourselves, we are nothing; it is God who makes us special.
We love ourselves by looking after our bodies, by being
happy with who we are, and respecting our uniqueness. We
believe we are loved by God and Jesus for who we are
(Galatians 2 v 20-21), we forgive ourselves because we
believe God forgives us when we truly repent, so we rejoice
as David did in Psalm 32.
In the two great commands is a word that occurs more than
“love” – the word, ‘you’:
“YOU shall love the Lord YOUR God with all YOUR heart,
with all YOUR soul, with all YOUR mind, and with all
YOUR strength. This is the first commandment. And the
second, like it, is this: YOU shall love YOUR
neighbour as YOURSELF.” God’s appeal is to you –
personally. The love God requires is your responsibility,
your desire – not another’s. It must be given because you
want to – not because of pressure or force from others.
It is your free choice to love God and your neighbour –
because you want to. This is true Christianity. It is easy
to make excuses, or to miss the power of this emphasis
because of the failures of others – and not try to live a life
of love. “He doesn’t”, “she doesn’t”, “I have been hurt too
much”, “Christians are hypocrites”, “my church doesn’t
teach these things” are examples of the kinds of excuses
we all struggle with. When we accept these as excuses, we
are less likely to be deceived by them. Daily Bible-reading,
prayer, building an intimate relationship with God and
Jesus and finding others who follow their teachings are
powerful helps to continue on the path of love, and not
turn from it.
It is comforting to know that God doesn’t look at how
much we achieve – how high we climb on the ladder of love.
He is interested in our motive – just that we try – not how
high we get. Remember what Paul said to Timothy – “the
purpose of all commands is love from a pure heart, from
a good conscience” (1Timothy 1 v 5). King David was
described as “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13 v
22). He wanted to build a temple for God because he
loved and honoured Him. God told him he was not the
one to do this, and then said these unforgettable words to
him – “In that it was in your heart, you did well” (1Kings
8 v 18). There are times when we really want to show our
love, really want to help someone, really want to do
something good – and it doesn’t work out. It is wonderful
to know that God rejoices when our motive is love out
of a pure heart, even when things do not turn out the way we
want.
Also there are times when we love people – and they let
us down and really hurt us. At such times we feel like giving
up, and it seems that “love is not worth it”. Though at times
loving is painful, and we pull back from loving, in the end
we will come to the realization that it is the best way to
live. God confirms this in His own experiences. In the days
of Noah the whole world was filled with violence and
wickedness. God was in so much pain at their way of life
He said, ‘I am sorry that I made man on the earth, and it
grieves me in my heart’ (Genesis 6 v 6). Later on, God
chose the nation of Israel as His people, and, at one point,
they were so evil that God explained to them how he felt:
‘I am BROKEN by your whorish heart,’ He said. (Ezekiel
6 v 9) These experiences, though very hurtful, did not
turn God away from His love for mankind. Hundreds
of years afterwards God says, ‘I so loved the world that I
gave my only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.’(John 3 v 16).
