Love Is Commanded

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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Siblings often find themselves on one another’s nerves. In fact, sometimes they can act pretty hateful toward one another. After all, they didn’t choose to be in that situation, they were born into it. But before long a parent is sure to separate the sparring siblings and send them to their respective rooms saying, “Now you spend some time in there thinking and when you can remember that you love each other then you can come out.”

Love is the ultimate goal in that situation. Where love is lacking, problems arise. The parent in that case was placing the siblings in a situation where they were to remember what part love plays in their relationship.

Jesus also reminds us about the importance of love in our relationships as well. Please consider our need to place our Savior’s wishes above our own as shown in Matthew 16:24-27.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”

Whatever Jesus asks us to do, we should be ready and willing to do it. Anything we gain apart from Him will be worthless to us.

Notice this passage in John 13:31-35 where Jesus actually commands that we love one another.

So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Did you notice that? The world will know that we belong to Jesus by the love that we have for one another. Of course, the opposite would be true as well. If Christians can not or will not demonstrate their love to one another then what does that say about them to the world?

Finally, let us consider this wonderful passage from John 15:9-14 where Jesus defines the ultimate show of love.

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

I love that passage! Jesus gave the ultimate price in His love for us. That’s the ultimate price for friendship. And we can partake of that friendship if we will do whatever He has commanded. In this passage the command is love.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we demonstrate our love to Jesus by showing our love to others. May we find the joy of Jesus in us and feel our own joy as we freely give our love to others, especially those who do not deserve it.

Our thought for the day: “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” G. K. Chesterson

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Love Others As God Loves You

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2ouhky

Love abounds in our lives but we often overlook it. You can see love in people at the grocery, at the restaurant and even in the passing cars on the highway. You can also see it in the hope-filled eyes of two young people as they begin to date. But to see love exemplified sometimes you need to see it from a different perspective.

Each day without exception you will find her there by the bedside of her husband in a nursing home facility. Some days he knows she is there. Other days he doesn’t. But that doesn’t matter. She is there anyway. Her promise to him many decades earlier was to love, cherish and honor one another until death separated them. It didn’t matter if the days were filled with poverty or riches, sickness or health. They had made their commitment to love one another.

True love like this no doubt was tested over the years, yet it remains stronger in the end than in the beginning. This kind of love was based partly in expectation—an expectation that we hold to our promise to God, to one another and to ourselves.

In part, our love to one another is also based upon the love that God has shown to us. Consider what John wrote in 1 John 4:9-21.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

There can be no doubt in the Christian’s mind that God really does love us. He sent His only Son to die in our place. Now that’s love! But God’s love to mankind wasn’t based on our mutual love to Him in return. Instead is was in spite of our rejection of God that Jesus came and died in our place. God’s act of love was given in hopes that we would accept His love and give our love to Him in return.

That’s why to the Christians God commands us to love one another as well as to love Him. In so doing we become an extension of His work on earth and we may enable others to be drawn to Him through our love.

In a world full of divorce it is especially refreshing to see a husband and wife who hold their marriage together until the end despite the inevitable difficulties of life. And it is even more refreshing to see a godly love being shown to others who certainly do not deserve it.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we choose to be more loving to those today who do not deserve our love. May we look to love others as God loved us and see what a difference it will make.

Our thought for the day: “He loves not Christ at all who does not love Christ above all.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Love Your Enemies

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2nhvba

Enemies are a fact of life. In the animal world some are spoken of as “natural enemies,” which is a nice way of saying that someone higher up on the food chain is looking your way for dinner. In the human part of the world our enemies come from various sources. Some enemies we make through disputes. Others appear due to prejudices, politics, or any number of other realms of disputes. Someone has said that the difference between our friends and our enemies is that our friends love us in spite of our faults and our enemies hate us in spite of our virtues.

Naturally we do not place our enemies higher than our friends when making out our invitation list for a party. The very nature of an enemy is one opposed to us. But Jesus has a better way of dealing with those in opposition.

Note what Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Real love that the Christian is to have is a love that treats an enemy well even though he doesn’t deserve it. It is a love that emulates the love that God and Jesus showed for mankind when that great sacrifice was made for our sins.

Consider further what Paul says in Romans 12:9-21.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

One may well ask, “What hope is there to love our enemies when we don’t even love those whom we should love?” That is an excellent question. The answer is in simply obeying what God says to do.

Hate stirs up enemies and creates more and more of them. But love is the cure for the common enemy. Love binds people together, looks out for their best interests and keeps a watchful eye out for God in the equation. Love is the only weapon that will defeat an enemy on a consistent basis.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we pray today about our enemies and may we study these passages on how to treat them. May we then plan specific ways in which we can demonstrate our love for our enemies.

Our thought for the day: “Those who deserve love least need it most!”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Love One Another

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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A story is told of four prominent ministers who met on a regular basis for breakfast. Three of the ministers were already seated and had been discussing a recent bulletin article by someone in a distant city. That article included several inaccurate and unflattering remarks about the fourth minister. As that minister approached to complete the foursome at the table, the other three wondered if he had yet read the article.

When presented with the article he indicated that he had read the contents. Then without any additional comment he called for the others to join him as he gave the blessing for their meal.

In that prayer this man prayed not only for the food, but also prayed for the younger preacher who had written that inaccurate and damaging article. He prayed for his wife and children by name since he had known this family for some time. He prayed for wisdom, patience and balanced judgment to come upon this man in his future years as a minister of the gospel.

When that prayer was finished nothing else was said about that article. It was evident that the target of that malicious attack was more interested in the welfare of the writer than the writer was about the welfare of the target.

Why is it so difficult for some people to love others? Even in the Bible some people were not able to get along with others or to complete a task for God without some dispute.

Could it be that an absence of love is to blame for some of these failings? I believe that it very well could be.

Notice what John says about our love for one another in 1 John 4:7-11.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Real love is seen in God’s actions toward mankind. As Christians we learn of this love and are drawn to God because of it. Unfortunately, Christians don’t always remember to love one another as they should.

Notice how John concludes this chapter in verses 20 and 21.

If someone says, “I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

In that first reading we find John saying that because God loved us we also ought to love one another. Then we find him saying that it is also a commandment that if we love God we must also love our brothers.

Friends, can you imagine a world where no one has any love toward you? Can you contemplate what it would be like to go through your day without any compassion, love or concern shown toward you? That would be a very discouraging world in which to live.

Fortunately for us, God loves us and demonstrates that love by having sent His Son to die in our place. We need not live in a world without love because God is love and God has filled this world with love. That love, my friends, in part comes from you and me as we love one another.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we seek out every opportunity to show love toward our fellow man, especially if that love is not deserved. May we learn to return love and kindness for hatred and evil. May we learn to love others without expecting love in return. In so doing, I believe that we will find more and more love.

Our thought for the day: “God measures how much we love Him by how much we love one another.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Love Defined

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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The young girl arrived home after school and walked past her mother with a glazed over look on her face. The mother followed the girl into her room and asked what was wrong. The girl replied, “I’m in love.” “Oh you are?” said the mother. “Well, can you tell me about it?” As the girl tries to put her feelings into words she stammers about. “Well, it’s like, I mean, uh, it’s really hard to put into words, mom.” Love can be so hard to define.

I’m sure that most of us would be well aware of a dictionary definition of love. But when love is experienced it really can’t be put into words so easily.

Love is special, wonderful, and desirable. Love is a goal of many people and rightfully so.

Listen to how Paul defines love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Love must be a very important thing to have so much power. Let’s consider a few of these points.

Paul begins with saying love is patient and is kind. Expressing our love to someone means that we resist jumping to conclusions, running out of patience or behaving unkindly. Sometimes it takes years for behaviors to change or for other goals to be reached. Love allows for longsuffering during this time because the goal is worth the wait.

Next Paul defines love in the negative—things that love does not do. Love does not show itself off or walk around arrogantly. These are self-centered actions which would be out of place with love.

Love also does not behave rudely. How many times have you witnessed someone act rudely to someone they really should love? That is out of place, out of character with love. Real love will not allow for such behavior. Real love will correct with compassion when needed but will not rudely retaliate.

Love does not seek after its own. Love looks out for the interests of others above self. Many problems in marriages today are the result of misplaces priorities. If the couples would put the interests of their spouse above their own many problems would cease to exist.

Love is not easily provoked into a dispute or anger. Some people appear always ready for a fight. But not so with love in the equation. Love is a cure for short fused tempers.

Love thinks no evil, nor does it rejoice in sin, but rather in truth. Love does not feed on gossip, but grows on good news. Love is looking to build up others, not tear them down.

Love also bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. Friends, love is indispensable. Love never fails!

Paul concludes that great chapter on love with the following in verse 13. “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we take some time and contemplate if our love for one another fits the qualities that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13. And as we do so, may we seek ways to improve, enhance and fortify the love that we possess.

Our thought for the day: “Love looks through a telescope; envy through a microscope.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.

Love Is Essential

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

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A popular song many years ago boasted, “All you need is love.” Many marriages have begun with that sentence as their motto only to find out that you still have to have a job, a place to live and food to eat. Love is an essential element to our lives and without love our lives would be vastly different.

Perhaps the most famous passage on love in the Bible is found in 1 Corinthians 13. This short chapter defines love and helps the reader to put love in proper perspective.

When my wife and I were attending a Christian university this chapter was a favorite passage to memorize for our memory work for Bible classes. It seemed especially appropriate to memorize if your girlfriend or boyfriend was also in the same class.

Here is what Paul says about love.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I wouldn’t say that all you need in life is love, but I would say that without love in your life, you really won’t have very much. Love is essential to a good life. Love overcomes so many troubles, paves the way to so many blessings, and illuminates the good in others as well as ourselves.

Love is what we need, not all we need.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we find happiness in knowing that God loves us. May we find joy in expressing our love to others .

Our thought for the day: “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Victor Hugo

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.