Skip to main content

The Birth of Love

All of us constantly shop for ideas on how best to love in our own way. There are plenty of suggestions in the world on how to do it. Agony Aunts and counsellors are all paid lots of money to help us deal with the search for love, especially when it goes wrong. Their answers are well known: love yourself more and try a bit harder.

The Bible tells us the opposite. You cannot truly love as you are meant to love until God gives you a new heart that can truly love! All human beings have rebelled against God. We have all rejected His love since the fall of man in Eden. Sin is a virus that has ravaged every single area of our relationship with God and with one another! We are in fact dead in sin. So, to truly love as God intends us to love we need God to give us new life. We must first be born of God :

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
John is saying, Only those who have received a new spiritual DNA, who are truly born again have a new capacity from God to love and therefore can in fact truly love others! To some this sounds offensive. You don't consider yourself a follower of Jesus and you are wondering, are you really saying I don’t have any love?

No, what the Bible is saying that if you are not a follower of Jesus you cannot love with the true love that only comes from God. Just as you can’t expect apples to produce oranges, you cannot expect a person not born of God to show the authentic love of God. For you and I to love others with the love of God, we must first have the same spiritual DNA that God has. In other words, we must be born of God anew through faith in Jesus. 

This means you need to acknowledge your sin and ask God to forgive your sins based on the death of Jesus on the cross. Place your full trust in Jesus. If you do that God will take away your old heart of sin and give you a new heart. He will pour His love in it, which enable you to love others.

Recognising that birth of love starts with the new birth of faith has implications for all of us who already followers of Jesus. In particular, it affects how you relate to non-Christians in your life. Maybe you have difficult family situation. You need to remember that if your family members are not followers of Jesus  you cannot expect them to love with the love that comes from God. So you must be patient with them, love them unconditionally, and pray every day for them!

Love Series :

The Origin of Love 


Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2017

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Vulnerability of A Pastor

None are more exposed to slanders and insults than godly teachers. This stems not only from the immense demands of their work, which can sometimes overwhelm them, causing them to stumble or falter and thus providing fertile ground for malicious individuals to find fault. Even when they diligently fulfil their duties and avoid any errors, they face a barrage of criticisms. Satan’s strategy is to alienate people from their ministers, gradually undermining their teaching and causing its reputation to suffer. This not only harms innocent individuals whose reputations are unjustly tarnished but also diminishes the authority of God’s holy teaching. Satan’s primary goal is to achieve this, as Plato’s observation about the maliciousness and envy of the masses applies here. Furthermore, the more sincerely a pastor strives to advance Christ’s kingdom, the more they become targets of spite and the more intense the attacks against them become. Moreover, accusations against ministers of the Wor...

Christian Unity

I profess myself to be of no party, and to love all of every party who love the Lord our saviour in sincerity. If they preach the truth in love, live as they preach, and are wise and watchful to win souls, and to feed the flock, I care not much whether they are called, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Church men, Kirkmen, or Methodists. I desire to rejoice in their success, on every side. I believe the zealots of all parties, pity or blame me, for my latitudinarian spirit, but the moderate and peaceable of all parties show me kindness.  In some of the great shops in London, there are several counters; and servants at each to attend the customers. If these servants are faithful and have their masters' interest at heart, they will not be jealous of each other, they will not affront the customers by saying 'Why do not you come to be served on my side of the shop? If they are all well served and pleased, it signifies not to which counter they come. Now what are we but servants of...

God is Not in A Rush

It is a noble aim to serve the Lord but we are sometimes too hasty, like children who love fruit but have not patience to stay till it is ripe. But the Lord is seldom hasty in his operations, and when our zeal comes to be sifted, by experience and after reflection, we shall perhaps find some of the bran of our own spirit mixed with it. Nay, possibly that Satan transformed into an angel of light, has put us upon things beyond the present call of duty and beyond our strength, that we may give him the less disturbance in future. In a word as I approve of your zeal, I shall be glad for your own sake if you will approve and adopt a little of my prudence. I wish my | letters may be a bridle to you and yours a spur to me.  JOHN NEWTON  (Source: Wise Counsel, p30)  Newton is giving this caution to Ryland because he feels he is getting overstretched. Ryland is taking on too much. He is serving as a man in hurry because he probably feels the urgency of the Gospel. Newton’s point is...