10 | LOVE LIKE THE LORD

LOVE LIKE THE LORD

The second branch of TLW, my abbreviated name to thelawdsway.

This branch comes from lawd(s). Lawd is a connotative way to speak of the Lord and spell His name in that manner, like in a colloquial term.

Love like the Lord. It really is that simple. There’s no way that we can be following God without loving Him. To be honest, there’s no way that we can state that we live in God without loving Him and loving others as He has taught us to love.

Love is a God first lifestyle (Psalms 34:10) and when we dwell in love we dwell in God because God is love (1^st John 4:16). Through our imperfections we are made perfect in the image of God. Through our scars we are made healed through God. Through the pain we find joy in God.

Love is an umbrella over every characteristic of who God is. God is a God of joy, peace, grace, perfection, mercy, forgiveness, healing, authority, power, protection. God is all of these things not only because that’s what we know Him by but how He has shown us these gifts in our lives. God-ordained gifts aren’t granted just because we say we are children of God. They’re granted by how we align to who God is in our lives, how we extend an arm of hope and grace to others in their walk in Christ, how we love others as God loves us.

Everything goes back to love. Not just in what is being said in this episode but life in general. Love is the foundation for all things. As we know, God is love so it’s clear that God is the foundation of all things. We cannot build a solid, good life without God. People may oppose to this statement from worldly examples of life riches, but those types of riches are perishable. A life enriched in God is the most important way to live, that is a life of heavenly riches that live on forever, a life of unconditional love from the Lord Most High. That cannot be tokened, exchanged or undervalued with anything else in this world, once you gain access to such life- hold onto it, deepen it’s foundation and embrace every aspect of it.

Going back to Psalms 34:10 it says- The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Living a life in God ensures the prevention of lacking in every part of life. Love is a God first lifestyle and when you embody such lifestyle, all that you are praying and working towards will come to pass. God doesn’t and will not leave us empty handed. I don’t mean that in a form of exchange of where we must follow God, love God and love like God to guarantee a life where we lack nothing. As mentioned in the previous episode, hardships, pain and suffering are all inevitable. However, a life in God, a life in God’s love makes it easier to navigate such events through His lens of hope and faith and by that accord, it ensures that we do not lack anything because we don’t live in negativity, worry, regrets and hesitancy that the above events provide. We can take life full on, knowing that God will be with us every step of the way. That’s why we must seek God first in all that we do and as we do so, His righteousness shall be added to us (Matthew 6:33).

Now that we know that love is a God first lifestyle, it’s important for us to understand how we can attain and maintain such lifestyle by knowing who God is by love.

This leads us back to 1^st John 4:16 but I wanted to discuss the whole chapter as a whole. When reading chapter 4 in the NKJV version, there are 5 subheadings to help us better understand love and love in God.

The first subheading: Love for God and one another (verses 1-6)

This subheading teaches us that there are many forms of spirits in this world- those that are for Christ and those that are against Him. Love like the Lord requires wisdom. It requires our ability to differentiate between the Spirit of God- those who confess Jesus Christ is Lord and the spirit of the antichrist- those who do not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We understand that those who reign in the Spirit of God has love for God as because we love God, God now loves and lives in us which is greater than spirits who love and live in the world. It is a guarantee that we are of God and therefore we are of His love. That’s great that we have developed such relationship, but it shouldn’t stop with us. Now that we know love like the Lord, we must spread the good news and the steps we took to embody such lifestyle so that others can also love God and love like the Lord. It’s not for us to do so in shaming them that they are not where we are right now in our walk in God, but through grace so they are not hindered from fully embracing who God is and what He can do for them. Let us love God and love one another as Jesus loves us.

The second subheading:  Knowing God through love (verses 7-11)

The second subheading teaches us that God’s love is unconditional as we understand that He sacrificed His one and only Son so that we could all be saved. He did that for us; all He asks is for us to extend love to others as He extended love to us. Love like the Lord requires sacrifice. Sacrifice can not only mean us giving up something that we wanted for someone else that needed it but also in knowing how to forgive others that have hurt us so we can learn to rebuild that love that was once there. Forgiveness and sacrifice may not always be easy acts to do, though it is required. Humanely, we may struggle at times to do these acts but that’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us. We learnt of the fruits of the spirit in the sixth episode and abiding in these fruits gives us the discipline in how to abide in God and live a lifestyle that abides in Him in all that we do. The very first fruit is love. As we abide in love, we abide in God and through His strength we are able to love in sacrifice, love in forgiveness and love in grace.

The third subheading: Seeing God through love (verses 12-16)

The third subheading teaches us that we see God through love in our belief of how He loves us and perfected His love in and for us. Love like the Lord requires unwavering belief in God. We know faith is not what is seen but believed. We walk in faith and not by sight in our walk with God and that requires our unwavering belief in who He is and how He loves us. God has shown His unwavering love to us not only by sacrificing His son but leaving us with the Holy Spirit so He can live in all of us forever. No one has seen God, no one knows what God looks like, but we all know who God is because of what He has done for us. He didn’t do any of the above acts only because He needed to. No. He did it because He wanted to and He loved, loves us that much to do these acts. Our lives must be in love as when we dwell in love, we dwell in God.

The fourth subheading: The consummation of love (verses 17-19)

The fourth subheading teaches us that love makes us as believers conquerors of fear as we dwell in God. Love like the Lord requires boldness. We cannot be timid or shy in our love for God. Our love for God cannot be hidden and minimised. We must love God boldly, we must love God confidently, we must love God courageously in all things. We don’t need to fear of anything as we have reverence in the Lord. Through the building of the foundation of our love in God and love like God to others, we can never be defeated or victims- only conquerors and victors.

The fifth and final subheading: Obedience by faith (verses 20-21)

The fifth and final subheading teaches us that love is in totality and truth, we cannot love God but express hatred to one another. Love like the Lord requires obedience. God commands us to love one another as we love God and as God loves us. We cannot be obedient to this command if we hate, are jealous or act prideful to others. We can see others; we cannot see God. How can we live hating what and who we can see and claim to be in total adoration for God who we cannot see? It could sound hypocritical. Though I am aware, loving everybody isn’t always easy but that’s why we have God, we have His commandments and the Bible to guide us as we navigate how to love others in truth. Obedience is required to be able to love God and love like God. Let us remain in obedience of His word on all that we do.

To summarise, being in love with God opens the doors to encounters with God. In all that we do, let us remember to love God and love like the Lord.

Remember, Trust in the Lord, Love like the Lord, Walk with the Lord.TLW

who do we follow? thelawdsway