It's All About Love (Part 2) by Ted Robertson - July 2010
How Does Love Really Fit Into All of This?
Christ is the medium by which God could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world
Isaiah 52: 13-15 http://bartleby.com/108/23/52.html#S78
Isaiah 53 http://bartleby.com/108/23/53.html
The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium through which He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). God suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption. Steps to Christ, chapter 1.
God loves us as much as He loves the Son
John 17 http://bartleby.com/108/43/17.html#S65
Can we comprehend the meaning of these words? Can we take it in? Can we measure this love? The thought that God loves us as He loves His Son should bring us in gratitude and praise to Him. Provision has been made whereby God can love us as He loves His Son, and it is through our oneness with Christ and with each other. EGW, That I May Know, page 172.
Jesus teaches us how to love
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, Joh. 13.34 ; 15.17 · 1 Jn. 3.23 · 2 Jn. 5.1--0.1 as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. John 15:12-17
Love is defined in Scripture
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17
1 Corinthians 13 http://bartleby.com/108/46/
A new clean heart and the Spirit of God will cause us to want to bring others to God
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13
Love is infectious
“Love begets love.” Desire of Ages, p. 519
Others can see love in us
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13: 35
God dwells in us when we love one another
No man hath seen God at any time. Joh. 1.18If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Lev. 19.18 Galatians 5:13-14
Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another. Romans 12:9-10
Love separates us from evil and the lusts of the flesh
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:10
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Rom. 7.15-23
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:16-24
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 2 Pet. 3.3 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Jude 17-23
A sign of the end is the loss of love
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12
Those who are in Christ continue in love until the end
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
The reward is beyond comprehension for those who love God
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Is. 64.4 1 Corinthians 2:9
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