Articles
Love.......Like Jesus
In 1 Cor 2:16 the Apostle Paul asks a question, "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?”
Jesus taught His chosen 12, and He even took certain ones aside at specific times for specific events, and it seemed more often than not, James and John and sometimes Peter were the ones chosen.
At one time, John, along with his brother James, earned the nickname "sons of thunder". We don't specifically know why Jesus did that, but we know Jesus knew their nature, and perhaps that was why. At one point they asked Jesus if He wanted to call down "fire from heaven" to destroy some people who refused Jesus' hospitality. They thought like some of us do! Jesus "rebuked them, and said, "'You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ And they went on to another village”. (Luke 9:51-56)
As we see John become more and more like Jesus, he calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved" and we see him teach a lot about love, "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another”. (1 John 3:11). Later, he admonishes his fellow believers, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
John grew as he followed Christ, and understood more and more about the mind of Christ.
Paul comes along and lists for us 9 specific behaviors that he calls 'fruit of the Spirit'. That list begins with "Love". (Gal 5:22-23). In that great chapter on love, Paul list many important things, then closed with these words, "...but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor 13:13)
How are we doing in our growth process regarding love? Are we growing and becoming more like Christ: Are we striving to understand and mimic His fullness? Are we at least further along than this time last year?
May our spirit be more like John, who walked with Christ, and wanted to be more like Him. May we have a “spirit of faith” (2 Corinthians 4:13), “a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1), a “spirit of wisdom” (Ephesians 1:17), and “a gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4). May we absorb the words of Paul, who says, if I "... have not love, I am nothing." (1 Cor 13:2)
