Saturday, 20 December 2008

• “Love is….”

  Ephesians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 13

   

  That you being rooted and grounded in love, steadfastly fixed in your love to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to all the saints, the beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many have some love to God and to his servants, but it is a flash, like the crackling of thorns under a pot, it makes a great noise, but is gone presently. We should earnestly desire that good affections might be fixed in us, that we may be rooted and grounded in love. Some understand it of their being settled and established in the sense of God's love to them, which would inspire them with greater arduous of holy love to him, and to one another. And how very desirable is it to have a settled fixed sense of the love of God and Christ to our souls, so as to be able to say with the apostle at all times, He has loved me! Now the best way to attain this is to be careful that we maintain a constant love to God in our souls; this will be the evidence of the love of God to us. We love him, because he first loved us.

  The more intimate acquaintance we have with Christ's love to us, the more our love will be drawn out to him, and to those who are his, for his sake: That you may be able to comprehend with all saints, etc. (v. 18-19); that is, more clearly to understand, and firmly to believe, the wonderful love of Christ to his, which the saints do understand and believe in some measure, and shall understand more hereafter. Christians should not aim to comprehend above all saints; but be content that God deals with them as he uses to do with those who love and fear his name: we should desire to comprehend with all saints, to have so much knowledge as the saints are allowed to have in this world. We should be ambitious of coming up with the first three; but not of going beyond what is the measure of the stature of other saints. It is observable how magnificently the apostle speaks of the love of Christ.

  Rooted in Love:   The dimensions of redeeming love are admirable: The breadth, and length, and depth, and height. By enumerating these dimensions, the apostle designs to signify the exceeding greatness of the love of Christ, the unsearchable riches of his love, which is higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, and broader than the sea, <Job 11:8-9>. Some describe the particulars thus: By the breadth of it we may understand the extent of it to all ages, nations, and ranks of men; by the length of it, its continuance from everlasting to everlasting; by the depth of it, its stooping to the lowest condition, with a design to relieve and save those who have sunk into the depths of sin and misery; by its height, its entitling and raising us up to the heavenly happiness and glory. We should desire to comprehend this love: it is the character of all the saints that they do so; for they all have a complacency and a confidence in the love of Christ: And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,   If it passeth knowledge, how can we know it? We must pray and endeavor to know something, and should still covet and strive to know more and more of it, though, after the best endeavors, none can fully comprehend it: in its full extent it surpasses knowledge. Though the love of Christ may be better perceived and known by Christians than it generally is, yet it cannot be fully understood on this side heaven.

  Grounded in Love: We are not only to be rooted in love, but also to be grounded in love, just as a great building requires a deep and solid foundation.  The principle taught is that the believer’s life and ministry must be built upon love, for love is the essential and inevitable part of life of all in whose hearts Jesus is proclaimed as Lord. 

   As we study the phase  “being rooted and grounded in love”  we remind ourselves that the Apostle’s fundamental proposition is that our whole life must be firmly based upon love;  it must draw its life, its strength, its power, its nutriment,  its everything from this Christian principle of love.  If Christ dwells in our hearts then love must be in our hearts, at the center of our being.  As we have already seen, the Apostle presents this truth in the form of two pictures,  that of a tree and also that of a building, last week we spoke of the being rooted in love (as a tree), today we will explore the picture of being grounded in His Love, (as a building).

  Grounded, Foundation etc. -- a number of principles emerge from this particular picture.   The importance of making sure that the foundation is well and truly laid.   Paul calls himself a wise master-builder, 1 Corinthians 3:10.  The hallmark of a wise master-builder is that he pays great attention to the foundation.  He does not rush to setup a building; he wants a durable and lasting building.  He wants a solid building, he never takes anything for granted, and he knows the soil remember the parable of the sower and the seeds...

  Spend time upon your foundation, do not rush it, let the Holy Spirit search your heart (your foundation) until it is pure and has no flaws.  We have to realize that there are no short cuts in the spiritual life.  These things take time.  Paul does not merely pray for these people that they might be filled with all the fullness of God; he knows that it cannot happen suddenly and without any preparation.  We must be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man and proceed to lay a solid foundation.  We must dig deeply and then be filled with the Spirit in order to lay a solid, a massive foundation.    “Take time to be holy....”

  The first answer is that all relationships in our life must be based upon love.  Everything is to be grounded, founded in love. "My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God.  When can I go and meet with God?"  Psalms 42:2  "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is not water"  Psalms 63:1  "My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word"  Psalms 119:8  "My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times"  Psalms 119:20  "I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land."  Psalms 143:6

  We must ask ourselves about our attitude towards God...  God is a personal God and demands a personal relationship with His children.  We must not only love God but love one another.  The second Great Commandment which follows loving the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength is “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” --- and   “Love your enemies.”  Whatever they may have said about you falsely, and however grievously they have wronged you or maligned you, you are to love your enemies.

  The love that alters and varies and changes this is human emotion, not God’s love.  “Love suffers long and is kind” “It is not easily provoked.” “Love bears all things” -- change in others, malice, spite, bitterness, hatred, anything that may happen they make no difference!  LOVE Stands Firm!  Love never fails.  Whatever may come against it, the foundation is so deep that love stands as if nothing ever took place.

  Nothing but a deep love to God can stand up to the trials and the stresses, the hazards and the stains of life.  Belief alone is not enough.  Belief is essential and it can take you along way.  But when the real storms come, belief alone is not enough.  Love alone enables us to stand to the storms of life.  “When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.”  When I cannot understand, when my intellect is baffled, and when I cannot explain, love still holds me up.  How vitally important it is that we should take time with the foundation and make sure we are being rooted and grounded in love of God.  So let us make sure that today the foundation of our life is grounded in the love of God and nothing else...  Joy is love exulting.  Peace is love reposing.   Long-suffering is love untiring Gentleness is love enduring.   Goodness is love in action.   Faith is love on the battlefield.   Meekness is love under discipline.   Temperance is love in training.   For Christ's Love compels us....

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