Title: The Power of Love
Text:
Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV)
37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Observation:
Today I want to focus on what Jesus had to say about the superiority, and the power of love. I'm glad Jesus was asked, and answered this question.
Matthew 22:36 (ESV)
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
Our focal passage for today gives the answer of Jesus to that question. We are further informed by what John wrote to those he described as his "dear little children".
The Apostle of Love said:
1 John 4:20-21 (ESV)
20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Is there anybody in your circle of influence that you find it difficult to love? Before you answer consider this.
1 John 4:21 (ESV)
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Love is such a high priority with God that Jesus also said this about how God's people should love others.
Luke 6:27-28 (ESV)
27 "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
Loving our enemies is not easy; it is not natural. Love is supernatural. God has poured love into your heart, and your responsibility before God is to love others with the love of God.
Romans 5:5 (ESV)
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
This is something you can do. Before you say you can't love some people consider this verse.
Romans 8:9 (ESV)
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Prayer:
Father, I am so touched and convicted by this message of the bible on the priority that You put on loving You, and loving others; and how they go together.
Father, help us to be more loving today than we have ever been before. Father, I pray for the faith to take the next step in appropriating the love that You have poured into our hearts up to You, and out to others. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Read the Daily Devotional by Herb Cotton; click here:
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