I had just now read in today's newspaper that love is ageless, limitless and has no retirement! People love and want to be loved at all ages. Not just young people but also old folk need love. But how do we test if our love is true or if others truly love us?
"Wherefore show ye to them..., the proof of your love" (2 Cor. 8:24). Love is capable of demonstration. Where it really exists, it will manifest itself. It need not be made known by mere assertion. We are told to love not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. In these days there are many who, like some of old, show much love with their mouths while their hearts are far from God. The test of our love is not how much we talk about it or how much we feel it, but how much we manifest it in our lives. There are three tests of love, which never fail to show exactly just how much we love. Let us consider them in order.
1. How Much We Serve
We are told that Jacob, in the O.T. history, loved Rachel so much that he served seven years for her, and that those years seemed to him as only a few days. Love makes people willing-hearted. There are many things to do; there are many ways to serve; and love prompts us to serve wherever possible. If we have love in our hearts, our hands will always be ready for service. Many people always look for others to serve them; but when it comes to the labor and responsibility connected with anything, willingness suddenly disappears. The test of their love proves that love is wanting. That's the reason many people get so few blessings because they do not love enough to serve.
There are duties for all. There are opportunities everywhere. Every one of them is a test of love. How does your love stand the test? Love will not grumble; it will not complain; it will not shirk from service. Do you love as fervently as you ought? Demonstrate it in your family, in your community, etc.
2. How Much We Sacrifice
The mother who loves her child thinks no sacrifice too great for it. Even her life will she give for it, if need be. The man who loves his country will, if the need should arise, count no sacrifice too great. He who loves God as truly as the mother loves her child or the patriot loves his country is willing to sacrifice for God. Abraham proved his love by not withholding his son. He offered him freely in obedience to God's command. Paul loved, and as a result he counted not his life dear to himself so that he might do the work of God. Christ so loved the world that he sacrificed everything for our salvation.
Many persons spend willingly and even lavishly for self who give sparingly and reluctantly to God. They spend more for their pleasures than they give. Some spend more for candy than they give to God's work. Some spend more for gasoline for pleasure-riding than they give to good causes. In fact, some spend so much on their own selfish desires that often say, "I can not give much to others." They might feel disposed to give if they had anything to give, but are they willing to deny themselves of some self-gratification in order to have something to give? There is the test of love that proves its real direction-whether it runs our self-ward or God-ward. If we love God and others as much as we love self, we can spend money for them just as willingly and with as little reluctance or regret to see it go as if it were being spent for ourselves. If we can not spend for God and his work more willingly than for self, it is because we do not love him more than self. If we do not get more pleasure out of giving than we do out of consuming, we may well question both the amount and quality of our love and its direction.
There is no way to avoid the issue. The fact is, there are too many whose love is wanting in that quality which draws out their hearts into the work of God until they are willing to sacrifice for it. It is true that there are many who do love and who prove it by their sacrifices. But it is just as true that there are many others who do not deny themselves and will not even from a sense of duty, to say nothing of making willing sacrifices through the prompting of love.
It is time that we heard more of the practical side of love practiced by people. A sacrificing person will be blessed if the sacrifice is prompted by love. People who are willing to serve and sacrifice have true love.
3. How Much We Endure
Christ proved his love by enduring the scoffs and ill-treatment of the people and the shame and suffering of the cross. By this He proved His love to be real. If our love is genuine, we will rejoice in our sifferings for God and others. Paul endured all things for the elect's sake, that they might be saved. If we cannot endure the little persecutions, the unkind words, the sneering smiles, the scoffs and jeers, of the unbelieving world, is it not because our love lacks fervency? Those who want to show love will endure hardships and perils and suffer in a thousand ways. Love that cannot endure hardness, misrepresentation, neglect, and such things, and still be sweet and strong, needs to be increased. Love suffers long. 1 cor 13.
Love makes service sweet, sacrifice easy, and meek endurance possible. Love enriches, ennobles, and blesses. It sweetens the bitter cup; it lightens the heavy load. It strengthens the faltering soul. Let us, therefore, see that we have fervent love toward God, toward each other, and toward others in the world.
Be Encouraged.
A.Othniel
| ><> Letter # 26 (26. 7. 2009) <>< |
0 comments:
Post a Comment