ANB 74, Born Again Part 3 (3-30-06)

Today I want to talk again about love. We know that Jesus told us that the greatest two commandments
are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves (see
Matthew 22:37-40). I've recently been studying love and what it means to love someone in a Godly
manner.

Jesus told us, "love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and you reward
shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the
evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Luke 6:35-36).

What a powerful verse. Jesus tells us that by loving our enemies, by loving the thankless and evil, that
we are God's children. Another translation says that we are the 'sons of God.' In God's eyes, this kind! of
love is a powerful force.

You see, when a person is born again their spirit changes. They had a sinful, selfish nature, but the new
nature of God is put inside of them. God is love, and so a born again person has a nature of love given to
them. Praise the Lord. It is because of this love nature that we are commanded to love to such a high
level.
Jesus understood that in our fallen condition we could never love properly, we could only try and fail
(really any sin is just a love failure). But when He gave us "Eternal Life" (John 10:10), He gave us the
very nature of God. This nature is love. Now we are to allow this nature and love to motivate us and
control us. This love should be our guiding light and the unction for all that we do.

A few weeks ago I told you that love is sacrificial giving. After reading 1 Corinthians 13 a! gain I see that I
was wrong. Paul tells us in that passage that even if we give our bodies to be burned but have not love,
then we are nothing. So love is not sacrificial giving, but as God showed us by giving us Jesus Christ,
love will motivate sacrificial giving. When I saw my definition fail, I realized that I was with love but without
a definition for it. So I began looking more into 1 Corinthians 13.

In verse 4 Paul tells us that love is kind. I thought that 'kind' would be an adjective and this didn't help, but
I heard God loud and clearly say, 'not in the Greek.' So I looked up the word "kind" in Greek and sure
enough it is a verb. The word is "chresteuomai". This word means - to show one's self mild, to be kind, to
use kindness. So to look at the verse another way, Paul says, "Love is to show kindness." I then thought
about all we know about the Greek word Agape, which is the w! ord for charity, or love, in 1 Corinthians
13.

Agape is the God kind of love, the kind of unconditional love that God has. This is different from the
common selfish love, this is selfless love. So now a new working definition of God's type of love is "using
unconditional kindness." So for me now my loving someone is me showing them unconditional kindness.
I believe this is the idea that Jesus refers to in the Luke passage. Even to those who hate you, be kind to
them. He then even says that God is kind to the unthankful and evil. The Greek word for kind in this
passage is "chrestos" which is the adjective form of the word chresteuomai. Glory to God. God is kind.
Love is kind. If I am to love I must show kindness.
Even sometimes I have told myself that I love people that I don't like. I would say in my heart that I love
them, but would I r! eally go out of my way to be kind to them. I see now that God requires this from me.
He doesn't just say to me, 'don't be a jerk and tell yourself you love them.' He says go out and be kind
even to the undeserving, for this is what I do, this is the kind of love that I am.

Being born again really means it's time to change our whole way of thinking when it comes to anger and
displeasure with another person. John 1:12 says that Jesus gave us the power to become the sons of
God. Remember we saw above that if we exercise this love we are the children of the Highest. Part of
the way we show who our Father is, and truly act like and become His Sons is by walking in this new level
of love. We all know that Jesus told us that other people would recognize His followers by the love that
we have for one another.

Now comes an extremely important part. In Romans 5:5 Paul te! lls us that the very love of God is "shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." God's love certainly involves acting
kindly. But it involves so much more. This love is about not just acting kindly, but truly feeling kindly
towards everyone. Remember, that Paul said even if we give all our money to the poor (a kind action), I
am nothing if my giving is not motivated by love.

So love is now a two part force. Love should direct how I feel, and love should direct what I do. Now,
some people may argue that love is really more about the action part. A good point would be to say,
Byron, I don't feel like loving people, but when I don't the power of God comes in and empowers me to
show love towards them and maintain my love walk.'

Now that is a wonderful and very true point. This love in my heart can empower me to act lovingly ! even
when I seriously don't want to. But even if I act right, is my heart changed. I feel good and God
appreciates it when I act kindly even when I don't want to, but is my heart changed. Do I really love them
as myself, or am I just being nice to override the true loathing I have in my heart to try to please God.
Really, I'm not condemning this last sentiment, I just want us all to go higher in the things of God and in
our understanding. Is my heart being conformed to God's (Who is Love, 1 John 4:8), or am I just using
actions to cover my unloving heart.

It's time that not only do my actions continue in love, but also that my feelings really become loving
feelings. When Paul says that giving without love is nothing, I see that I really have to have this "love"
inside of me. I believe love is something like a genuine, unconditional appreciation and care for another
being, God or man.&n! bsp; It is this appreciation for the other that should motivate my kind, or loving,
actions.

My heart must truly begin to love them. I know some people might say that is a tall order, but we're not
working on light issues here. We are trying to conform ourselves into the image of God. God didn't really
resent us and send us His Son just to act lovingly. No, He truly loved us and sent His Son accordingly. I
want to feel that way to. I want to feel the love, so the love action just flows naturally. I know how to walk
in love in my actions, now I want to truly love. We are going to the core of our love walk, to the root
issues, this is extremely important.
So let me leave you with this. I don't need to change my actions, I need to change my feelings. The love
of God is in my heart because of the Holy Spirit, but I still don't truly feel love for everyone! . So if the
promise is that the love is there, then I need to use faith to appropriate the promise to my life. Let's begin
using our faith together right now. Say this out loud:

"I declare in the Name of Jesus Christ Almighty that I feel perfect love for everyone from this moment on.
In Jesus' Name, Thank You Lord God, Amen."

That's how you begin. Now you will be tempted, so you must believe in faith. Confess the scripture,
God's unconditional love for everyone is in my heart. Confess it over and over again. Soon, you will
believe it. Confess it especially when it is super hard to do so, you will soon feel it even more. Soon you
will be conforming yourself to God's image in ways you never imagined. Once you have and live in God's
love, then everything else will fall into place. All faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). So today begin usin!
g your faith for more love, and because you want to love people more your faith will work. Here love is
motivating and empowering your faith. Once you start getting your love to God's type and level, which is
totally possible because you were created in the image of Love, then see yourself have all faith,
understand all mysteries, and live every piece of life the true sons of God should live out. Glory to God.