Pursuing Love

from Jerry Bridge's Practice of Godliness

I figured with Valentine's day right around the corner the next characteristic of godliness I would encourage you with was that of love. Love is the foundational grace from which all others grow. "Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity" (Colossians 3:14). What we as Christians must realize is that our devotion to God is expressed outwardly in how we love one another. 1 John 4:20-21 explains that those who do not love their brother cannot possibly claim to love God or be one of His..that we can't truly love God without loving our brothers.

Devotion to God is the ultimate motivating factor for Christian character but it is "also true that love for our brother is the more proximate motivation for the exercise of Christian graces among another". If we look at the most famous chapter on love in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, we will see things that spur us on such as the following:

-I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.
-I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.
-I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best.
-I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.
-I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.
- I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings.
-I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs
- I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.
- I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you and "love covers a multitude of sin" (1 Peter 4:8)

"Love is not so much a character trait as the inner disposition of the soul that produces them all." But how can we really understand what love is?? Well we have to start with the definition..."GOD IS LOVE"! God was love long before he ever made any creatures who were capable of love and being loved. He is who we should be looking to for our example. "We must make the cultivation and exercise of love in our hearts an urgent priority". As Christians we should be seeking holiness, humility and love. IF we love God we will seek to be hoy and if we seek to love others we will seek to be humble. How did God show His love? He gave even at great cost to himself. God's cost was infinite in giving Jesus Christ and oh he did not hesitate to pay the cost to meet our need. So we too are to put love into practice by meeting the needs of our brothers EVEN when it costs us something (money, time, energy). God also showed his love in his forgiveness. He forgave at great cost to himself. But what about when justice needs to be done you might ask? We need to remember that forgiveness cost God HIS SON...what does it really cost us to forgive one another?? It simply costs us our sense of justice. Within our souls we have this burning desire to satisfy most often our selfish desires of "justice" (how we would describe it) but we need to remember that JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE. "In order to forgive our brother, we must be satisfied with God's justice and forego the satisfaction of our own." Forgivness manifested in love enables us to be patient with one another and to live in peace with one another.

Love ALWAYS results in action! Love reaches out! True biblical love is not based on feelings, it is much more an action then it is an emotion. Although, there is emotion involved. We are to reach out and embrace our brothers with fervency in our spirits and we shouldn't settle for less (obviously it can't be a substitute for actions but it can accompany them). We must remember that love is much more than a mere act of the will, we should however not just 'decide' to do acts of love but we should DESIRE to do them. We are to seek the Lord and pray that He would give us that loving spirit that delights to reach out and "embrace our brother and to meet his need and or forgive his sin even if it costs us greatly".

We again with all godly virtues must remember that it involves both He who works in us and also our personal efforts. We must seek His Word and pray that the Holy Spirit will use it to transform us and we must OBEY the things that love dictates. But all this must be done with full dependence upon the Holy Spirit who works within us to do good for His purpose. "As we do our part, we can count on God to perform His, not because our working obligates Him to work but because He is a gracious and loving God and He wants us to become gracious and loving children of His."