Love; The End of The Matter
Devotions:
The fulfillment of the Law is to love God with all of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot do this until we know the love God has for us. The Bible is a revelation of that love, it is a revelation of a Savior who died in our place to set us free from the law and sin.
“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5 NASB
The result then of our teaching and preaching is to present Jesus in His full glory, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. It is a revelation of the love that the Father God has for His creation especially mankind who what made in His image and in His likeness. No other religion values human life because they think that man's origin is inconsequential. So there is no difference between a man or a woman and a cow or some other animal. In their thinking we just happen to be here but the Bible teaches that mankind is the crown of God's creation, created in the image and likeness of God. In the new creation, what sin marred, Jesus restored. We were made new creations, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We are His body.
“and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"” Acts 9:4 NASB
When Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, He did not ask, "Why are you persecuting my church?" He asked, "Why are you persecuting Me?"
When we allow our doctrine to divide us then we are not walking in love with each other. Our central issue is Jesus. We do not have to agree on everything. If someone is born again then they are a part of the body of Christ. We then walk in love towards the brethern. If they are not born again then we are to walk in love towards them to bring them to Christ. This we can only due as we habitually partake of the revelation of the Father's love for us. When we regularly feed on His love for us as He demonstrated when He sent Jesus to die for us and raised Him victorious then that creates love in our hearts that we can then share with those around us, believers and unbelievers.
Transformation from God comes only through the power of His love not through our own effort. To effectively fulfill what God gave all of us to do, proclaim the good news to the world, then we must radiate that love and not judgement and criticism. Sin is wrong but we are here to help people get out of sin not judge them. Let love do the work!