I got the best compliment I’ve ever received today:

Amanda K: you know, not a day has gone by that if I was having a bad one, you made it better?

I’ve gotten a few good compliments, but I don’t think I’ve ever been given one that got to my heart quite like that did.

I was at a weekend in the Word in Illinois last weekend. the theme was “Rooted and Grounded in Love” from Ephesians 3:17. That compliment is the most perfect end to that weekend that I can possibly imagine.

The general gist of what I got out of the weekend was that 1) My job is to love God and the people around us 2) Loving is giving, and 3) We have God and Jesus Christ as perfect examples of how to love/give.

My job is to love God and the people around me

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

That lays it out plain as day. (”Thy neighbor” refers to the people who your life touches.) Jesus Christ is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 for the first and Leviticus 19:18 for the second.

He says “On these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.” These two commandents, love God and love the people around you, are the foundation of all of the law and all of the prophets. That’s pretty important.

Now, ever since Christ fulfilled the law, it hasn’t applied to us, so all that love stuff goes out the window, right?

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Gotcha! This is the grace administration: we’re not under the law of the old testament, but we do still have one rule: love. (Ephesians 3 calls our time the dispensation of grace, basically an administration, or dispensation, is time period defined in Gods Word.)

I Corinthians, which does apply to us, tells us quite a bit about love in chapter 13. (The greek word translated “charity” is the same root word (agape) translated “love” in Jesus’s new commandment in John 13:34)

Love encompases and overrules all of the rules and commandments that were laid out before. So what, pray tell, is love?

Loving is giving

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Look at the first half of this verse: for God so loved that He gave. What a perfect example of loving.

John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

This verse has a double meaning: there’s the one that everyone sees: dying for someone, then the other part that gets overlooked: living for someone. When you give a person your time, you just gave them part of your life. That’s loving.

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

A living sacrifice. Christ died for us so that we can Live for him. What a perfect example of loving!

We have God and Jesus Christ as perfect examples of how to love/give

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

How did Jesus love us? Is spent his entire *living* ministry taking care of people. Lookup Jesus and compassion some time.

And then, when the time came, Jesus gave up his life for us. It was not something he wanted to do. He prayed twice “let this cup pass from me“, yet he had enough love for God and for us that he did it.

look at John 3:16 again:

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What’s the one thing that could possibly be harder to give than your own life? Ask any parent and they could tell you it’s their children’s lives. And that’s what God gave for us so that we could have everlasting life.

What does he ask in return? That we love him. Jesus said “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (to avoid confusion, he also pointed out “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.“) So loving God is doing what he asks us to do.

I’ll leave it up to you and God to figure out the details

God bless you, I love you all,
-Nathan