Feeding the Sheep - Living the New Life 8

"Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony."
-Apostle Paul, 1st century
Colossians 3:14

[This is the 23rd message of this series]

This lesson is intended for mature believers (or adulting believers). For a more orderly study, please go through all the previous messages first, if you haven't yet.

New Nature

This is the 8th part of this series, within a series.

To continue, we were talking about how Apostle Paul is telling the first church in Colassae what "to do", in place of things they started to quit doing.

Agape Love

"When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:6-8

The Apostle Paul in writing to the first church in Rome, described to them (as we have read) the love of God. In the Greek, this love is agape.

Our new nature in Christ is born out of this kind of love, the love of our Creator.

This is the same love we use to love Our heavenly Father back, and the same unselfish (selfless) kind of love we extend to others, especially the unlovable.

We were all unlovable but God loved us so much, as the most famous Scripture tells us:

"that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

None of us deserves this kind of love, yet it was given us, without any expectation that we will accept it nor reciprocate or extend to others. It is both unconditional and unmerited, such is the love of God.

Harmony

This same love is what is supposed to keep harmony within the church, the whole Body of Christ. When we do not see unity and harmony within the church then the love of God is not flowing out from, and into each and every member.

Love makes the world go round. Love is all we need. Love is a many splendored thing. We know what love is, we have been singing about love for generations. Although the God kind of love, we cannot give, if we have not received it yet.

Jesus told His disciples, people will know them if they love one another. Let us all start today...