Spirit Breakfast 🍞☕ 15th February 2019

Theme: Remaining in the Love of Christ 

Anchor Text: John 15:9&10 New Living Translation
15:9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
15:10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

Yeah we're just getting off the euphoria of yesterday's valentine celebration: the day dedicated to love. Well I know some people are still high on it anyway...hey snap out of it! Let's get real shall we?

It's not about the glitz, glamour and what have you that's carried out on a particular day that matters. What matters most is what happens after that lovely day. Just like it's not what happens on a wedding day that really matters, but what happens after the wedding in the marriage itself.

It is not just about what happened to you as a believer in Christ Jesus on that happy day when Jesus washed your sins away but what happens consequently after that day that matters most.

When we get saved and are accepted into the beloved of the Father, for anyone who truly got born again the feeling is euphoric. We are high on the love of Christ. We can sing of his love forever just like the band 'Delirious?' did. Yet that isn't the end to it...

We need to maintain that love that we experienced on that happy day. Jesus encouraged us to remain in His love just like He did in the love of the Father. How does one remain in this love?

Well the Master didn't leave us confused on how to remain in his love. He said the way to do this is to obey his commandments. The way to remain in the love of Christ is to obey His commandments, so what then are these comandments? Do we know them? Where can we find them?

In this case again the Master didn't leave us confused as to what the commandments are. He said in John 15:12 "This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you."
He went further to clarify it in case anyone wasn't clear on what the commandment is. He said in John 15:17 "This is my command: Love each other." 

Love is the ultimate command. Jesus said 'love each other in the same way I have loved you.' So the pattern of love is clearly stated as well to avoid confusion.

Four types of love are mentioned in scriptures. Due to the limitation of the English language in translating and converting the thoughts of the old  Greek, the Bible translates those words as love. These words were:
1. Eros: This is sensual or romantic love. 
2. Storge: This is the affectionate bond that exists between family members.
3. Philia: This is the intimate bond seen in truly deep friendship. It is the general terms used to describe love that pertains to compassion, generosity, care, respect and Goodwill.
4. AGAPE: This is the God-kind of love. This love is pure, perfect, unconditional and sacrificial in nature.

Agape is the love that Jesus requested His disciples to show to everyone.
The love that's pure without any iota of evil.
The love that doesn't require any condition to be fulfilled on the part of he other party before it is shown.
The love that's sacrificial and can lay down one's life for another if necessary. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

If this is the kind of love we need to exhibit as touching obedience to the commandment of Jesus, then how do we acheive this since it is the God-kind of love which is perfect and as humans we are flawed? Do we generate it? Obviously we can't since it's God-kind, so what do we do? 

The Master did not leave us confused as well regarding this. But before we see what the Master Jesus said, let's look at what Apostle Paul said to the Romans in Romans 5:5: "And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Paul as inspired by the Holy Spirit to write said that the Holy Spirit Himself fills our heart with the God-kind of love. This means we don't need to generate it ourselves because we can't..rather at the new birth, our hearts are filled with this love; filled with AGAPE.

So if we already have Agape inside of us, there's a need to maintain it and remain in it. That takes us back to what the Master said which we jumped earlier. He said is John 15:4 'Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

The AGAPE is already inisde of us but to maintain it and not get overshadowed by the world and it's negative effects, we need to remain in Christ Jesus. Remaining in Christ has to deal with our personal relationship with God (who is LOVE). The more we remain with and in Him, the more the God nature and essence flows into us and ultimately we begin to produce fruits of love effortlessly; and we all know that love is a fruit of the Spirit.

That's how to remain in the love of Christ.

Prayer: May we receive the Grace to be consistent in our fellowship with God in Jesus name.

 
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