Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Today I want to start to go through the excerpted chapter from Mere Christianity-
' Charity means 'Love, in the Christian sense.
But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion.'
Love in the CHRISTIAN sense does NOT mean an emotion. We have got so caught up in the emotion of love that we truly can't get past the emotion we associate with love. We grow up learning that if you love someone you feel something out of the ordinary. You have special emotions for those you love. We learn this and when we grow up we expect the emotions of love to be exceedingly special for those we partner with and we want those emotions to never go away. When the emotions do change we equate that with our love changing. People constantly want to know what the secret is for people married a long time and it most assuredly isn't a constant love emotion being felt for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years. Love is so much more than emotion, Christian love - GOD'S LOVE.
'It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.
I pointed out in the chapter on Forgiveness that our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves.
It means that we wish our own good.'
Not the state of feelings but of the WILL.
The state of the WILL we NATURALLY HAVE ABOUT OURSELVES.
It means that we WISH OUR OWN GOOD.
Very few people do not wish their own good. WE call those people mentally unstable in some way. To not wish your own good is truly in a very basic way wrong. I'm not saying you wish for millions, stardom, etc. A general good for yourself, a general contentment in your life, a simple but real happiness, this is what we wish for, NOT what we necessarily will have.
We wish our own good naturally and CHRISTIAN LOVE-CHARITY is wishing that SAME good for OTHERS.
We have to believe this because it is truth.
Jesus did NOT tell us to get all emotionally lovey dovey and sentimentally attached with our emotions to others. He outlined what love was in HIS word.
1Co 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1Co 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
LOVE- suffers long
LOVE-is kind
LOVE-envies not
LOVE-vaunts not itself
LOVE-is not puffed up
LOVE-does not behave itself unseemly
LOVE-seeks NOT her own
LOVE- is not easily provoked
LOVE-thinks no evil
LOVE- bears all things
LOVE-believes all things
LOVE-hopes all things
LOVE-endures all things
Where is the…love is feeling good? Where is the…love is feeling all giggly inside?
Love suffers- nothing about that feeling good here.
Love is kind- again nothing about feelings. You can be very, very kind without having to feel all gushy about someone, do I dare say without even generally liking them as we know what it means to like someone, wanting to spend time with them etc.
Love envies not, vaunts not, not puffed up, not behave unseemly, not seeking her own, not easily provoked, thinks no evil, bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things- again no feelings mentioned here about love being all emotional, all sentimental.
So WHY do we believe it needs to be all about our emotional state, how we are feeling? Why do we call that LOVE? Satan has done a grand job of making LOVE out to be something it's really not.
I love this- 'But love in the Christian sense does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of feelings but of the WILL.'
If only we would remember this, truly remember this.
God HELP us to remember this!
Your WILL is LOVE.
Our WILL should be LOVE- YOUR LOVE which is LOVE FOR YOU and LOVE FOR OTHERS!
You LORD are the source of LOVE. Please LORD, help us, we are so incredibly undeserving! Help us to be YOURS WHOLLY and to LOVE FULLY IN YOU, FOR YOU, BY YOU!
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Today I want to start to go through the excerpted chapter from Mere Christianity-
' Charity means 'Love, in the Christian sense.
But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion.'
Love in the CHRISTIAN sense does NOT mean an emotion. We have got so caught up in the emotion of love that we truly can't get past the emotion we associate with love. We grow up learning that if you love someone you feel something out of the ordinary. You have special emotions for those you love. We learn this and when we grow up we expect the emotions of love to be exceedingly special for those we partner with and we want those emotions to never go away. When the emotions do change we equate that with our love changing. People constantly want to know what the secret is for people married a long time and it most assuredly isn't a constant love emotion being felt for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years. Love is so much more than emotion, Christian love - GOD'S LOVE.
'It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people.
I pointed out in the chapter on Forgiveness that our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves.
It means that we wish our own good.'
Not the state of feelings but of the WILL.
The state of the WILL we NATURALLY HAVE ABOUT OURSELVES.
It means that we WISH OUR OWN GOOD.
Very few people do not wish their own good. WE call those people mentally unstable in some way. To not wish your own good is truly in a very basic way wrong. I'm not saying you wish for millions, stardom, etc. A general good for yourself, a general contentment in your life, a simple but real happiness, this is what we wish for, NOT what we necessarily will have.
We wish our own good naturally and CHRISTIAN LOVE-CHARITY is wishing that SAME good for OTHERS.
We have to believe this because it is truth.
Jesus did NOT tell us to get all emotionally lovey dovey and sentimentally attached with our emotions to others. He outlined what love was in HIS word.
1Co 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1Co 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
LOVE- suffers long
LOVE-is kind
LOVE-envies not
LOVE-vaunts not itself
LOVE-is not puffed up
LOVE-does not behave itself unseemly
LOVE-seeks NOT her own
LOVE- is not easily provoked
LOVE-thinks no evil
LOVE- bears all things
LOVE-believes all things
LOVE-hopes all things
LOVE-endures all things
Where is the…love is feeling good? Where is the…love is feeling all giggly inside?
Love suffers- nothing about that feeling good here.
Love is kind- again nothing about feelings. You can be very, very kind without having to feel all gushy about someone, do I dare say without even generally liking them as we know what it means to like someone, wanting to spend time with them etc.
Love envies not, vaunts not, not puffed up, not behave unseemly, not seeking her own, not easily provoked, thinks no evil, bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things- again no feelings mentioned here about love being all emotional, all sentimental.
So WHY do we believe it needs to be all about our emotional state, how we are feeling? Why do we call that LOVE? Satan has done a grand job of making LOVE out to be something it's really not.
I love this- 'But love in the Christian sense does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of feelings but of the WILL.'
If only we would remember this, truly remember this.
God HELP us to remember this!
Your WILL is LOVE.
Our WILL should be LOVE- YOUR LOVE which is LOVE FOR YOU and LOVE FOR OTHERS!
You LORD are the source of LOVE. Please LORD, help us, we are so incredibly undeserving! Help us to be YOURS WHOLLY and to LOVE FULLY IN YOU, FOR YOU, BY YOU!
No comments:
Post a Comment