Inspiration of Love 07
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God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16). I am to be love in this world (4:17) by being like him.
God chose to love me. When I act as he did in the world, then I am choosing to love.
Because he chose love, I can choose love.
I write this knowing that I do not presently love my enemies and rarely pray for those who persecute me. We must not confuse the truth of Christ with our experience. We must continue in belief, submit to the truth, purge what error and sin we can, and let God's Spirit transform us into those truth that we may presently not be experiencing.
Illustration: You upset me. I get mad. It is legitimate, not a selfish temper tantrum. Instead of "giving you a piece of my mind." Instead of insulting or demeaning you in return. Without secretly harboring sinful thoughts and feelings, I spare you my wrath, scorn, harsh words, snide remarks, ignoring of you, and I choose to treat you as if you never did it and continue loving you. That's God's love in this world.
As stated earlier in this series, it's not wrath that changes lives, it's the goodness of God purposefully acting in love.
"By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
We need to choose love. Jesus chose love. When we choose love like Jesus, we know God is working in us, perfecting his love in us.
We need to embrace the concept that we can imitate Jesus and are supposed to do so; that because God chose to love, then we can choose to love. It our mission to be more and more like Jesus. That "more and more" is God's plan for our lives. Perfecting love refers to completing a project. The project is that God is molding us into the image of his son (Rom 8:29; Gal 4:19).
We must think of this daily. We must consider ourselves as exemplifying Jesus in this world. We must choose this attitude and lifestyle and make God's purposeful choice of us the foundation of our experience. It is the goodness of God in the love of Christ that transforms lives. This is the inspiration of God's love.
