Issue 44: Love — the Excelling Virtue
What does love mean to you?
Hello! Welcome to this week’s edition of the Jesus Therapy Seven Newsletter. I pray that the Holy Spirit will illumine the eyes of our understanding and bring us into the place of intimacy with Him, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Continue to give your attention to the spiritual gifts you consider to be the greatest. But now I want to point out a way of life that is even greater.
- 1 Corinthians 12:31 ERV
But earnestly desire and strive for the greater gifts [if acquiring them is going to be your goal]. And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one of the choicest graces and the highest of them all: unselfish love].
- 1 Corinthians 12:31 AMP
A friend once expressed how many Christians have not been able to understand 1 Cor. 13. Just thinking about it, I remember the words of Jesus in His teaching on celibacy in Matthew 19:11 - But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given…”
The gift of salvation is one which the Lord gives. Except He gave it, we couldn’t accept it. The same applies to the grace to bear fruit and grow into the image of Christ.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- 1 Cor 2:14
I agree with my friend that many Christians have not understood 1 Cor 13. And I believe it is because we try to receive the things of the Spirit in the flesh. If you’re saved, then you can relate to the fleshly love you once experienced — bouts of feelings that soon dissipate under pressure.
LOVE Beyond The Flesh – 1 Corinthians 13
Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy;
Love does not parade itself
It is not puffed up;
It does not behave rudely
It does not seek its own advantage
It is not provoked
It thinks no evil
It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
But whether there are prophecies, they will fail;
Whether there are tongues, they will cease; Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
And now these three abide: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.
At the beginning of this newsletter, I asked what love meant to you. For me, salvation was my first entrance into the realm of true love.
What love is not: Read our newsletter on the Cattle Egret to know.
O the overwhelming love of God that chases us till we’re saved!
O the love that empowers us to love!
O the love that compels us to love!
THIS LOVE!
Have you experienced it? Do you know it?
and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
- Romans 5:5 KJV
Someone once said it is only when we have come to the end of our human love that we can love through the Spirit. When you see a Christian who, despite the drawbacks of the flesh, still insists on loving and praying for their enemies like the Lord taught us, you can tell that God has prevailed over their natural inclinations and His love compels them to love.
Have you come to the end of your human love?
Today, I passionately asked the Lord to enlarge my heart to make room for more love for Him and men. A love free from offence and selfish motives. A love that expects nothing in return. A love that carries about Christ's death so that Christ's life can be manifest. Let us come up to higher ground!
Till next time,
Wednesday, God-willing.