Seldom do you hear about this all-important function. Yet, it could not be written more plainly on the pages of the Bible. And it could not be more important. Here are Paul’s words on the subject:

We need not be ashamed of hope because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.
Romans 5:5

It is only through the Spirit’s power to do so that we can fulfill the two great commandments, to love God and our neighbor. Sure, the world thinks that it knows what love is all about. Hollywood, magazines, TV sitcoms, and the like thrive on the subject. But none of them has the slightest idea of what Paul was talking about.

There are so many differences between true—that is, biblical—love and the stuff pawned off on an unsuspecting audience that revels in the emotion, and sexual-laden commodity that is falsely termed love by the media, that it is impossible to even mention (let alone describe or discuss)  them here. So, let me mention the principal one: the Spirit’s love is “giving.” God so loved the world that He gave His unique Son; He loved me and gave Himself for me; Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, are but three biblical references that demonstrate this fundamental quality of true love.

In contrast, so much of the world’s so-called “love” is no more than lust. Lust wants to get, not to give. “If I don’t get what I want out of a marriage, then I’ll leave it to see if I can do better elsewhere,” is the sentiment expressed by many who break up families and go their own way. They were disappointed by not getting what the soaps held forth as love. There is no thought of “What can I give to make this marriage what it ought to be?” That concept is utterly foreign.

But even if one were to attempt to give, rather than seek what he/she wants, it still wouldn’t be biblical love. Why? Because the Scriptures set forth the only standard of what one ought to give, and how to give it. They would be giving all the wrong things in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons. Moreover, God would be left out of the picture, and He, alone, is the model for what giving-love is all about.

Only those who have experienced His saving love in Christ can love Him and others as they ought, because only they have the Holy Spirit at work in their lives enabling them to do so.

Are you a loving person? Think about it, and come to Christ to discover what true love is all about.

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The post True Love appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

The post Love appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

“Can’t say that I have.”

Well, love is the first piece of fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22. Some even think it’s the basic quality from which the other items listed flow.

“Of course, now that you mention it, I remember it as the first fruit of the Spirit.

And, sometime, check out Colossians 1:8 where, in passing, Paul mentions “your love by the Spirit.”

“What do you think that means?”

Much the same as the longer reference in Romans 5:5 where Paul wrote,

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.

Before regeneration (of which the pouring is a picture) no one is capable of expressing God-like or God-pleasing love. Others may  love with a sort of ersatz love, but the vertical dimension is totally missing from it.

“What does that mean?”

It means that God is left out of the picture; that such love has a heavy self-focus rather than an other-focus (and, in particular, leaving out God as the significant Other).

“Tell me more.”

O.K. To love God with all of one’s heart, mind, body and soul, and his neighbor as himself, isn’t really possible unless such one is enabled by the Holy Spirit to do so. That’s why, for instance, in Romans 15: 30 love is called “the Spirit’s love.”

“ How is that?”

The Holy Spirit helps us love others by causing us to remember God’s love in Christ whenever we extend love to Him or our neighbor. We understand that true love is always like His—the giving of ourselves to and for God and our neighbors. How one thinks about love makes a great deal of difference.

“Oh!”

You see, the Spirit within the believer helps him recall the love of God in Christ, We love—in the right way—because Jesus first loved us. So, in a vital sense, the Spirit is the Source of such love.

“Hmmmm.”

True love isn’t flat, cardboard love; it’s three dimensional. It’s real. What brings it to life in a relationship is the presence of the Holy Spirit Who shapes it in ways that honor and please God, and bless people.

“I see. So, love in a marriage—or any other relationship—is bound to be deficient unless it is love that has been generated and formed in a believer by the Spirit.”

Precisely.

When the Spirit was poured into a believer’s heart, along with Him came this new capacity to see how God is intimately related to love of all sorts. He is the One Who showed us what love meant when Christ expressed it by dying for our sins on the cross.

“And it’s the Spirit Who reminds us of this and helps us see how God’s love is the standard to which ours ought to conform?”

You’ve got it!

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The post True Love appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Is this factor still as impressive today? If not, why not?

On the other hand, is it even fair to ask these questions? After centuries of spreading the faith, and the leavening effect for good that it has had on those civilizations it has influenced, would the contrast be as great as in ancient times?

Or, on the other hand, has the major difference in our times and theirs only been in the technological advances that have occurred, so that the characteristic of Christian love still ought to stand out among modern pagans?

Either way–Christian, does it impress you?

That question is certainly valid, and ought to be asked. In looking at the situation as you know it, how will you answer? Yes?__ No?___ Some qualified answer_________________________

[Check one, or fill in the blank]

If your answer is yes, how can the situation be improved?

If your answer is no, what needs to be done about it? What can you do?

If you gave a qualified answer, explain how whatever deficiency you mentioned (assuming you did) can be remedied.

On the whole, this questionnaire would be a worthwhile exercise for the members of your congregation to take. Think about it. I won’t charge you a thing to use it.

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