Praying for God’s presence, protection, providence and peace be upon you and your household! May you be blessed with today’s message and spiritual songs. Blessed Sunday and the week ahead!
MESSAGE 3: ALBA- Motivation of Christ out of LOVE. Part 1
From our quest to discover our SHAPE, it has led us to focus on spiritual maturity by growing our character as presented by Dr. David Jeremiah in his book ALBA on the fruit of the Spirit. Before we study the teachings from the book, we’ve established the fact that it is a fruit that has 9 important ingredients; not 9 fruits of the Spirit and each fruit represents a born-again believer who, rightly so, is on a journey towards maturity. The formation of these ingredients is of utmost importance because it could well determine the quality of the lives we live now and how they will be evaluated by God in its eternity.
Out of the 9 ingredients the first is LOVE. We believe that it is the most integral and foundational part of the formation process. It is like the seed of a fruit from which the continuity of its kind is preserved and propagated. There is no better clarity of this matter than the one our Lord Jesus spoke of in Matthew 22:36-40:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
How do we measure ourselves in the light of the above scriptures? Yes, none of us is perfect and we are all “broken vessels” and “work in progress” but we must constantly remind ourselves that we must seek to please God by following His divine standard.
The topic of love comes in manifold lessons and immense facets that will take an eternity to fully understand. The much that we have experienced or know of thus far cannot be compared to the much more that will be revealed. We thank God for showing us the way of love through His Son, Jesus Christ. He truly epitomizes love.
Jesus showed us that love is not just passion but also devotion; not just how good one feels but also how tenacious and committed we are despite the storms. There are many different types of motivations or intentions out love. We will look into some of them through the lenses of Jesus’ eyes and hopefully, will help us see where we are and how much we need to grow to be like Him. Today we will cover 3 out of the 9 motivations of Christ out of LOVE.
1. Obedience out of LOVE.
John 14:31: “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do...”
Luke 22:42: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Jesus chose to obey not just out of submission or respect to the Father but out of love- the highest form of obedience.
Obedience was the first test in the Garden of Eden, the monumental Ten Commandments given to the Israelites was for the same purpose and this same test will run through all eternity.
John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments”.
To whom do you obey? Is it according to biblical/godly or worldly standards?
What motivates you to obey? Is it because you have to, out of fear or love?
2. Responsibility out of LOVE.
John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”.
Mark 10:45: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Responsibility is obedience internalized; it becomes your duty/conviction/mission. No one could take the way of the Cross from Jesus no matter how difficult/painful the journey He knew will take Him. He knew it was His responsibility and He was willing to sacrifice Himself for the salvation of mankind.
When we take ownership over what we are called to do, we can see greater commitment and better quality of work.
As a Christian, what are your responsibilities? In trying to fulfil them, do you grumble, procrastinate or consider them as boring chores? Our past does not define us but what we do now does. When someone is in love, oh he/she will surely do anything at great lengths to make the other party happy. Let us take heed to Revelation 2:7: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Are you in love?
3. Justice out of LOVE.
John 8:7: “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
John 9:3: “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him”.
Jesus knew that part of His mission is to ensure God’s truth/justice is not just heard but seen. He took much time to teach and unsure that “the truth will set the people free” from wrong teachings. He even “fought” for the “redemptive rights” of the repentant prostitute and the man born blind who were considered pariahs in the society then.
We have seen how some are willing make sacrifices to ensure justice is served. We are not talking about worldly and politically motivated movements that have caused more damage/harm than good. The flame of justice without love will not only consume the cause we are fighting for but if left unchecked, will be destructive to others and even ourselves. It can also easily ignite to become self-righteousness, seeking to remove the speck from the other when one does not realise that he has a plank in his own eye (Matthew 7:3-5).
We are focusing on a sense of zeal/desire to ensure God’s truth is upheld and taught in our generation and the following. We often hear some “older” Christians saying: “Sadly, this new generations of believers are no longer as faith-resilient as we are.” But the pivitol question is: “Are we doing anything about it?” Micah 6:8 summarized it by stating: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? Let us impact our society with a sense of doing what is right especially to the needy by exercising justice out of love for God.