Fruit of the spirit part 3 (love part 2)

There is no better explanation that love is an action not a feeling, than when you study how we are to love God. First of all the entire first part on love must be included here. Matthew 25:40, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” After all, why are we here? If it were merely for our own salvation He would have taken us home the moment we asked for His grace. We are here to serve others, to be fishers of men, and in doing so we serve Him as well.
Joshua 22:5, “But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” To keep His commandments is to love Him. Jesus says this again in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” In my study on the shield of faith I discovered that Jesus’ commandments were the old commandments and more because true brotherly love goes far beyond the 10 original commandments.
Matthew 10:37-39, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” No, our God is not a selfish God who cares only for His worship and not for our loved ones salvation. He is not willing that any should parish. I think this verse is here because sometimes we get the idea in our heads that we are trying to save someone in particular so much that we abandon Gods way and revert to our own. The problem with that is WE don’t save anybody. God says love Him first. In loving Him first and doing what He asks of us we will have a greater chance of reaching our loved ones for Christ. His way may seem harsh and unloving at times but we are to trust Him. “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” What would be involved in carrying a cross? Pain, ridicule, abandonment, humiliation, and exhaustion are just a few that come to mind. Whoever decided that if you have trouble in your life you aren’t walking with the Lord right, could not have been reading the same Bible as I do. Job was described as perfect and upright. Paul was stoned almost to death and thrown in prison more than once. That cross is heavy indeed but it is lighter than satans (Mat 11:30) and when it is for the Lord our God we can rejoice in it (Matt 5:11-12). Who else is able to rejoice through difficult times but the children of the one and only God? No one, what a privilege! “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Losing our life is what we struggle against when we are called to give our all to Christ. What we need to realize is that what we are holding so tightly to isn’t our life at all. Our true life is waiting to be given to us by our Saviour.
This brings me to the benefits of making this effort to love. Love brings; faith (Gal 5:6), grace (Eph 6:24), His mercy (Ex 20:6), His love (Prov 8:17), crowns (James 1:12, 2 Tim 4:6), a kingdom (Matt 25:34), “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28. There are probably many, many more I could find but I should say these are good enough for me.