You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
Deuteronomy 6:5-6 ESV
Love…
From the beginning… God’s reaching out to re-connect with His people… is all centered on… love…
The greatest commandment He gave us… the first and most important is… Love your God with all your heart… soul… and strength…
Love is at the core of all He commands His people… starting with… loving Him… and then our neighbors…
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. …”
Leviticus 19:18 NIV
Father God sent Jesus Christ… the Messiah… as the manifestation of His love…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. …
John 3:16-17 ESV
He came to show us the Way of love…
“…Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. …”
John 15:13 NIV
The Christian faith is all about love…
Falling in love with God the Father… through Jesus… by way of the Holy Spirit…
Christianity is a loving relationship we continually try to turn into a set of rules…
Rules to which we fall prey…
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Romans 3:10 NLT
Every time we choose rules over relationship… whether it’s with God or others… we move out of the reign of the Holy Spirit… and into the realm of the flesh…
And the flesh is a way that always leads to death…
Why do we continue to fall to this default way of living and judging…? when we have the Way of Life before us…?
The law of Love… the falling in love with God… in the Person of… Father… Son… and Spirit… then in turn… falling in love with those He’s created… is the only way we can fulfill the law…
The only thing we owe anyone… is… love…
Owe nothing to anyone — except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.
Romans 13:8 NLT
Where do you see rules reigning in your relationship with God…?
Where is doctrine causing discord… disconnect… in your relationships…?
Maybe… just maybe… these are markers… of falling outside… the law of Love…
Praying you… and I… will move ever closer… to falling in love with Him… until our whole lives… heart… mind… soul… and strength… are consumed with loving Him…
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17b-19 NIV
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