Welcome to Day 14 of The Challenge!
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And above all these things put on charity,
which is the bond of perfectness.
~
As you begin reading and meditating on Colossians 3, by the time you get to verse 14 it seems as though the chapter has reached a climax, and it certainly has!!! As we read the scriptures, we all could say that love (or charity, as it is put here) has an extremely important roll in the Christian’s life. But as I really sat down to think about this verse, questions started popping into my mind. “How do you put on love?” “Is it an action or just a fruit of the spirit?” “How do we get love so that we can love others?” Because of these questions, I turned to God’s Word to find the answers.
John 15 came to mind. It is this chapter that has really changed my life and has helped me out of very dark and difficult circumstances. As I began reading this passage of Scripture, the picture of love, how we get it, and how we maintain it all started falling together. Truly love is a fruit of the spirit, but it is only a fruit that comes from an intimate walk with the Lord and obedience to His Word! When we as Christians are able to lay down our own lives in willing submission to following God’s Word, we will find that we will be able to show to others the same kind of love that Christ had for us. Why? Because we are keeping Christ’s Commands! “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”
Then, if we are walking in a close relationship with the Lord by keeping His commandments, we will in no doubt have put on this awesome quality of love. Because of Christ’s love flowing in and through us, God will be able to use us in ANY situation He would see fit for His glory! But the key to this whole concept of putting on love is this: The depth of our obedience to God’s Word will be the determining factor to the depth of genuine love that Christ can fill us with so that we might be able to be pour it out on others, affecting their lives for eternity!
~ Nate Paine
1. Form a Group of Two or Three 2. Be in One Accord 3. Pray Out Loud 4. Use the Names of Jesus 5. Di...
Welcome to Day 13 of The Challenge! Our verse to memorize is II Timothy 2:13: ~ "If we believe ...
January 14th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Thanks for sharing, Nate!! It really makes you think deeper into the meaning of abiding in Christ and allowing His love to flow through us!
January 14th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Dude! Thanks for making the connection between genuine love and faithful obedience! John 15 is such an amazing portion of God’s Word. The definition of love that John 15 gives has changed the way I think about passages like Colossians 3. God Bless brother!
January 18th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Thank you for writing this, Nate! It requires, as you said, “a laying down of our own lives in submission to God’s Word” to show love to others. That is the command of God’s Word, that we show that kind of love to others. This is the death that always results in life! This is the love of God that we keep His commandments! This is the kind of death that God’s Spirit teaches His children not to fear, but to embrace. This is being transformed into Christ’s image. Once again, we see that the Almighty has made it so that there are certain good things that can never be received without a certain hardship first, which cannot compare to the reward! To wish you great rewards could mean wishing you great trials. Fear not! Embrace the challenge with a strong graft and an unending flow of sap. Abide in Him and keep yourselves from idols!
January 19th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
I really appreciated this, Nate! I was challenged by the correlation between obedience and genuine love…
How convicting that my usefulness to God depends solely on the depth of my “yes” to His Word!