The Kingdom of God has principles that govern its operations. I would call them rules but they are not really rules, rules are mandatory and must be follow but God’s principles are left on you to choose what to do about it. This is because God will never come and knock down our knees when we fail to obey Him, but it will always be to our benefit to follow His ways. There are things that we can never receive from God unless we fulfill and apply His principles here on earth.
1st John 4:7(“Beloved, let’s love one another, for Love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.”)From this verse, we can all understand that being born of God is at a cost; Love. Being born of God is one thing that I desire and I believe others do too and if the only condition to follow is Love, I cannot ignore it. In Mark 12:28-32,a scribe asked Jesus on what the greatest commandment was and Jesus replied that the first was loving God will all our hearts, soul, mind and all our strength and the second was loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. I pray that God will help us in this area because there are gifts that we might never receive without love.
Love is too broad to list all its expressions in a writing but I would like us to consider the common expressions of it. Loving our enemies and people we differ in interests with. Matthew 5:44(“But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you.”)One thing with love is that it overshadows all faults and weaknesses. There is so much in love that once it begins to flow, hate and curses from others no longer becomes a stumbling block for your life. At the same time, we become less and less conscious of their weaknesses and we begin to appreciate God’s creation.
God is the creator of us all and He loves us under our limitations and weaknesses, so once you fail to love what God Himself has given life you definitely fail to love God Himself and you cannot share in what He owns. This is because God’s giftings are out of love. It’s all out Love that He supplies to our needs, protects us, guides us and the so many things that He does for us. Psalms 36:7(“How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings ”).We can see that God is kind in Love through which He allows us to take refuge under His wings.
We are literally nothing without love.1st Corinthians 13:2(“If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.”)The Word of God has no lie and when it says that we are nothing without love, believe me it means it. I also realize that we can have so many gifts of God: prophesy, knowledge and faith and yet be nothing. I don’t know how being nothing clicks in your mind. It really hits hard. I pray that I will not be nothing just because I can’t find it in my heart to love. Romans 13:8-9 (“Owe no one anything, except to love one another ;for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law ”) I cannot add anything to this verse, it’s all so well put. I desire to fulfill the laws of God. The fact that we are under the Grace of God, His laws will always hold. There are always consequences of failing to follow and obey God’s laws. His Words are never to be compromised.
I pray that we shall bear love for God and others in our lives. It’s a key to so many packages of God’s blessings that we cannot miss out. Shalom.
The Latter Grace 