“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”
1 Thessalonians 3:12
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone showed more love in giving, in affliction, in celebration, in politics, in all of life? “Do everything in love,” Paul states simply in 1 Corinthians 16:14.
The flowering of love in the church is God’s objective for His ministry of the Word. And by its fragrance, the world recognizes the people of God. This is because it is by the love of God given in Christ that His people have been chosen, forgiven, and knit together.
True love can be hard. Love may ask us to be firm with a family member, to forgive an enemy, or to share what we depend on. Understanding love in all its facets is to better understand Jesus. The good news is that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We know His love because “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Apart from God, we wither and dry up as people who try to love. But in Christ, our love flourishes and overflows to others.
The flowering of love in the church is God’s objective for His ministry of the Word. And by its fragrance, the world recognizes the people of God. This is because it is by the love of God given in Christ that His people have been chosen, forgiven, and knit together.
True love can be hard. Love may ask us to be firm with a family member, to forgive an enemy, or to share what we depend on. Understanding love in all its facets is to better understand Jesus. The good news is that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We know His love because “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Apart from God, we wither and dry up as people who try to love. But in Christ, our love flourishes and overflows to others.
Scripture Focus
1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
Insight
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)
Bible In A Year
- 1 Kings 19-20
- Proverbs 9
- Hebrews 12
