FAITH WORKS BY LOVE

Part 2

Without the force of love, faith and hope won’t work because Love is a Person.  If you are born of God by making Jesus ‘The LORD of your life, you are born of Love. First John 4:7 says, “…love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”  And Romans 5:5 tells us, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  The person of the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us at the new birth.

God’s own love is shed abroad into our hearts when we receive Jesus as Savior and LORD.  That’s why love is the foundation of each of the fruits and gifts of the Spirit and the basis for every operation of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said the commandment of love is the first and greatest commandment.  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  …And the second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37, 39-40).

The Apostle Paul prayed for the believers at Ephesus that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).  Having an intimate knowledge of the breadth and length and depth and height of God’s love for you enables you to love others with His love.  So if you’re rooted and grounded in His love, you will be quick to forgive and slow to take offense.

​See Part 1 at the FAITH BLOG