Really ?

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And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 2 John 5-6

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I was meditating on the verses above, reading them again and again in my heart when the Lord gave me some light on the link between love and obedience.

The command is clear: it’s to Love one another.

Nothing more, nothing less. Simple, sharp, without any ambiguity. The Lord commands us to love one another.

How do we “love one another” ?

I believe there are multiple ways to express our love to one another. Spending time with someone, giving a gift, make a phone call, visiting someone at the hospital, correcting or opposing someone in love,  encouraging someone, smiling, saying “hello” and so on.

If there are multiple ways or channels to convey the love to someone, this is also true that there is One Love. There is Only One Love and it’s Jesus-Christ.

We cannot give what we do not have

Without Jesus-Christ living inside us, we cannot give proper love to someone. He is the origin, the point of start, the basis of the love that we want to express.

Without Jesus-Christ we will express a carnal love.

Without him living is us, we will love others just because we get something in return.

Self satisfaction,
Self approval
Self righteousness

You can get on with this for a while but if you stay at this level you will never enter in fullness of life in Jesus, never knowing what the true love is.

Is Jesus-Christ living in you ? Did you welcome him ?

We can ignore what we have

Now for us who have received the Lord in our lives, we are blessed. The God who created the universe lives inside of each of us. We are the body and he lives in our hearts.

But in the process of renewing our minds we sometimes express love carnally, ignoring the presence of the Lord in us.

This is what the Corinthians were doing, when Paul in love, corrected them:

My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:11-12

Paul calls them brother.
Is Christ not living in them ? Yes Christ does live in them.
Are they expressing the love of Christ ? No, they are carnal.

Love out of relationship

In the beginning of my journey with the Lord in 2002, I was trying to do many things for the Lord. And I was exhausting myself. I was doing many things through the flesh which is a natural tendency when you are a new born of the spirit.

But as I grew after ups, downs, victories and failures, I have learned to put a priority on my relationship with the Lord.

Spending time with him, meditating the words during hours, while I’m a walking to go to bible college, or while I’m washing the dishes or while I’m mowing the lawn.

Out of this, I have built a relationship with the Lord. I can identify when he whispers something in my heart: To make a call or to visit someone or to give some money to so and so, or to give a word.

Obeying because of love

Expressing love to someone because the Lord whispered it in your heart is totally different than expressing love from the flesh.

When it’s from the Lord, you are not afraid of being rejected. You love the Lord so much that you know that you are NOT rejected by Him and that drives out the fear of being rejected by people.

You are not afraid of failure when you obey the Lord.
Not afraid being ridiculed when you obey the Lord.
Not afraid of not having for you after giving what you have when you obey the Lord.
You know that he will never leave you empty. He will always supply for you.
You are not afraid of being mocked, knowing that he was mocked too and he is with you always.

I saw the Lord doing great things in my life when I obeyed to what he whispered to me.

When I stepped in faith to do what he asks me in secret to do, I experience His peace in my heart which gives me great joy. A peace that you do not experience when you don’t obey him

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. 2 John 6

We need to know the Lord better to be able to obey Him better.

Take carer today my friend.

guiYome 🙂
A son of the Most High