Love Never Fails

 Love Never Fails

1 Corinthians 13, often called the love chapter,  gives a foundation for understanding sacrificial love. This love is not limited to or equated with passionate feelings, but rather involves our inner sense of the intrinsic value of people. Sacrificial love was demonstrated in a unique way when Jesus the Messiah offered himself willingly as a sacrifice for the sins of all people who believe in him.

The essential character of God is centered in love. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” NIV

God’s love, demonstrated by Jesus Christ, calls us to love God in return, and to come to him in faith and have life. Through that life in him, we are to show the love of God to others in the way that we live our lives. Paul says that love never fails, in comparing it to temporary gifts. That means that love endures, and has an eternal quality. God’s nature is equated with love by the apostle John, 1 John 4:8 and 16, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”------ “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” NIV

Therefore love for each other becomes the evidence that we are alive in Jesus Christ. As John explained it, love for one another is evidence that we belong to God, even when we doubt ourselves: 1 John 3:16-24, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” NIV

Obviously, from this context, our abiding in Christ is evidenced by how we treat each other. His Spirit living in us will encourage us to show concern for the helpless, remembering that Jesus said in Matt 25:37-40, "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'”

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'” NIV

So love of the helpless, having a heart that is concerned for their needs and that tries to help them, is evidence that we desire to please Jesus.

God’s love never fails. It is unending, providing hope to all who believe and trust in Jesus Christ. Christians are encouraged to put love to work in our lives, 1 Peter 1:22-23, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” NIV

Versova, Mumbai, India

Truth Makes Free

Truth Makes Us Free

Truth and freedom are things we desire. Even if we are champions of truthfulness, and ready to risk our lives for freedom, we fail in the end if we do not know Jesus. It is only Jesus who can give us true freedom, freedom from slavery to sin and selfishness.

John 8:31-32—“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." –“John 8:36--"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” NASU

When Jesus said that the truth makes us free, He was referring to Himself. It is Jesus who makes us free. John 14:6—“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” NASU

As John wrote earlier, John 1:17-18—“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” NASU

Yes, Jesus showed us truth by the life that He lived. We find truth in Jesus Christ, and are encouraged in truth by the Holy Spirit given to God’s children as a down payment on our inheritance, Eph 1:13-14—“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation -- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.” NASU

This knowing truth is not a process whereby we give right answers to the wrong questions. It is not complete knowledge that saves us. None of us knows much compared to God. If knowing truth completely is required in order for us to be saved, we are all lost. Each of us is ignorant of the righteousness of God in some ways.

Paul’s words are true, 1 Cor 8:1-3—“Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.” NASU

From this we can determine that knowing information is not the way to freedom. Knowing some information never made anyone free. But knowing Christ makes us free. The way to freedom is by a life transformed by being born again into the liberty that is in Jesus Christ, Eph 4:20-24—“But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” NASU

Therefore it is past time for us to quit thinking that salvation depends on having the right answers to things some might claim as necessary knowledge, but which may be matters of judgment and opinion. Truth is not a body of information determined by the human rational process of learning from examples and necessary inference. Such knowledge will not save us. Truth is Jesus Christ, and His words. It is Jesus who saves, and only by having the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ do we have hope of eternal life.

As Paul wrote, 1 Tim 2:3-6—“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.” NASU

The truth is that Jesus died for sinners, and all who come to Him in sincere faith can have eternal life. Freedom is in Jesus Christ. The Truth, the eternal Word, Who was in the beginning, and through Whom all things were made, makes us free, if we know Him. And one must be born again of the water and the spirit in order to truly know Him.

The Death Penalty

He Paid the Death Penalty for Us

In the beginning, after God had finished creating the heavens and the earth, He looked at His creation on the sixth day and determined that it was very good, Gen 1:31. After God formed woman, He took Adam and Eve and put them in the garden of Eden, and gave it into their care. The tree of life was in the garden, so that they need never die. But they had one problem-- Adam and Eve had been created subject to temptation to sin, with free will.

God gave them one commandment, and warned that if they violated that commandment, they would die. They gave in to temptation, ate the forbidden fruit, gained the knowledge of good and evil, and were cast out of the garden, separated from life. The wages of sin is death.

Gen 2:15-17--Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."
Gen 3:13-19--Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." ----

Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it'; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." NASU

The nature of mankind did not change after the sin of Adam and Eve, but because of their sin, they were removed from the presence of God in the garden.  They tried to hide from Him in their shame of nakedness, trying to cover themselves with clothes made out of leaves. But even though Adam and Eve had sinned, and were cast out of the garden, God still cared for them. He made for them some clothing from the skins of animals to cover their shame, Gen 3:21.

Paul, writing about the creation of mankind, says this: Rom 8:18-21—“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Yes, mankind was created subject to the futility of temptation leading to sin and death, so that God could show His love to people who do not deserve it, so that we can learn to depend on the Power and Goodness of God rather than trusting in ourselves. Through this process of sin and death, and God providing the covering for our shame with the precious blood of Jesus, the children of God are revealed by faith in Jesus.

We escape from the death penalty in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. All who come to Him and trust in Him will be delivered from death. 

It is the blood of Jesus, not our own righteousness, that purchases our salvation, 1 Peter 1:18-23—“knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God."

Yes, we have all been under the death penalty because of our own personal sins. But Jesus provides the covering for our shame. Paul said it well, Gal 3:21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (ESV)

Putting on the Righteousness of Jesus