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12 de dezembro

LOVE IS NOT ENVIOUS

Love is not envious (ze-LOo-, original Greek, and is from the word (ZE-los) or zeal), which means; To be zealous, filled with zeal, zealously affected; to make a show of zeal, to profess affection in order to gain someone as a follower. Also, the word "not" refers to ever,... So, actually you would say that Love never is envious, nor boils over with jealousy, First, let me say that we are stiil talking about the kind of love that God wants us to have for Him and for everyone else in our lifetime.

We are still in I Cor 13 and that means that this envy and jealousy is not just referring to the love inside a marraige and or a dating relationship, but EVERY relationship. Now,  If I really love you, I want good things to happen for you. When they do, it's like they have happened to me and I share your joy. Love, AGAPE LOVE, takes us out of ourselves and places us in the other person's shoes. Their needs become our needs. Their sorrows become our sorrows.
 
And their joys become our joys. In love there is no room for envy, because my joy at your good fortune is the same as my joy in my good fortune. But, you say, it's only natural to desire good things that other people have. Exactly, but agape love is not natural. It's supernatural. It doesn't come from us. It comes from God and travels through us. What we have to do is get our "natural" self out of the way and let the supernatural power of Gods love flow.

We talked about this in an earlier study as "dying to self"... "more of Him
and less of me".

Galations 5:24-26
Explains what I mean.
 
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.     25 If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.] 
26 Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.

Love is not envious.


I love you and I desire above all thing that we grow together in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

LOVE IS NOT SELF-SEEKING

Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking Of the definitions I've given in this study of Love, this is one I probably don't need to give. But for the record, Self-seeking means:

Concerned only with oneself: egocentric, egoistic, egoistical, egomaniacal, egotistic, egotistical, self-absorbed, self-centered, self-involved, selfish, self-serving, or wrapped up in oneself.


In our very first study on this journey through Love, (see Blog titled, This Thing Called Love) we found "together" in the scriptures that, to Love God and one another is the most important thing to God. Now that you know love is most important to God, then understanding what Love is should be our most important search and here we are in the teachings of God concerning Love. Consider the following also:


10[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]( Philippians 3:10 ).

 In this verse, and many others like it, we see that on one hand our personal relationship is most important,... But also what He wants and is doing is now important to us as well. Reconciliation or restoring of the relationship between the Man and God, is what Jesus came and ultimately died for. Putting it back to what God designed it to be,... Fixing the lost connection betwween created and The Creator. This is what Jesus Christ did in redemption (on the cross).

I cease to be loving when I become self-seeking, only interested in the development of my own needs and desires. I see this is true because, "if Christ committed His life for this cause, and now I have decided to live for Christ, then reconciliation of the human race is now what I want.

Note: Reconciliation is sharing Christ with everyone through being an example of love, witnessing, sharing the good news about Christ, and bringing everyone you can into a personal relationship with Him.


Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this very purpose. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy a quiet spiritual retreat. We are here to have the full realization of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of building His body... Bringing those He (Christ) sends us into a relationship with Him. OK, so, to fulfill God's perfect design for me requires my total surrender— complete abandonment of myself to Him. Whenever I only want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. And I will suffer great humiliation once I come to acknowledge and understand that I have not really been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ Himself, but only concerned with knowing what He has done for me.

So, Here is the bottom line,
If I Love God then I MUST TRUST IN AND RELY UPON HIM FOR MY NEEDS. IF I DO THAT, THEN I NO LONGER NEED TO BE CONCERNED WITH MYSELF. NOW THAT I AM NO LONGER CONCERNED WITH MYSELF, I CAN LOVE EVERYONE THE WAY GOD LOVES. Love is not self-seeking.
I Love you.

LOVE DOESNT REJOICE AT INJUSTICE

 

Love does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. I heard someone (a company I had been to) had recently been robbed. I found myself feeling kinda glad because of the way I had been treated by them in the past. This initial feeling quickly turned into GUILT which comes is the result of conflict between the Holy Spirit and the still corrupt natural deeds of my flesh. No matter how "deserving" it may seem for someone to "get what's coming to them", that's not what love would do.  Love does not avenge itself.  Love is not secretly glad someone was injured or hurt or paid back for their wrongs. Bill Turners Commentary says,  Love rejoices not in iniquity, it is not glad when others go wrong. Love does not rejoice, "ou chairei," over evil, sin and failure; this is what the wicked do. Romans 1v32 Though they are fully aware of God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them themselves but approve and applaud others who practice them. Love does not enjoy evil, nor does it find pleasure in finding out the faults of others and making them known.

1John 2v15-17. 15 Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.     16 For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]--these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].     17 And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever.

There is no triumph in knowing we were right about another's failings; a heart of love is sorrowful, prayerful, and broken over the fall or faults of another. We are in real trouble with God if we use a revelation of the Holy Spirit to expose and condemn, when God wanted us to use it to convert, help and strengthen a person, and as a directive to pray earnestly for them. See how prayerfully and kindly our Lord dealt with Peter and the woman at the well.

Luke 22v31-34. John 4v16-18.

Love wants to help the fallen, not condemn them. Love never gloats over, or finds satisfaction in, other people's failures. So, why does God have to instruct Christians on rejoicing in unrighteousness. And how can we obey Gods Word. what we allow into our hearts and minds. And what we dwell on in our thoughts affects what we want, and choose, to do in daily life. And along with idle talk among our friends that turns in the wrong direction, we should also be careful of what we watch on TV and in movies, what we read in books and magazines, the kinds of games we play, and the kinds of jokes we listen to.

Here's the problem: Sin is never passive. It leads to more sin, prompting us to self delusions and even outward deception. It will also lead us to try and justify our wrong behavior. Sin is all about doing what pleases self at the expense of others. Even actual sin itself may seem harmless, since many sins do not involve anyone else. But the time we spend with sin is time and imagination and creativity lost to us forever. Had we spent that time and effort doing good instead of evil, we may have accomplished real good for someone else. We may have even changed the world we live in. But we will never know how God might have used us if we make room for sin instead of right thinking and acting. Learn to discern (recognize) what is off color, less than worthy, or even evil, and why it is wrong. Discipline your mind by God's Word, training your self to think according to God's truth and righteousness.

None of us are ever perfectly pure in our motives or thinking. Not naturally, anyway. But God will help us if we are willing to spend time with God, reading the Scriptures, praying in the Spirit, and follow the Holy Spirits urges. The Lord Jesus is our way out of the trouble sin brings. Jesus is the life and power we need for godly living. And He is the light we need in a world of darkness, deception and confusion.

I love you.