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Love More And More
In this passage, we’re learning about Christian ambition. Yesterday we were encouraged to demonstrate love for other believers, and today, we are encouraged to do more and more of that: “Yet we urge you…to do so more and more…” (v.10b).
In verse 9 Paul writes that followers of Jesus have been “taught by God to love each other.” God demonstrates and teaches us how to love each other. One theologian suggested that the Trinity is God showing us how to live with other believers in a mutual relationship of giving and receiving love. Notice the way Paul describes how each member of the Godhead shows us love:
Romans 5:5 - God the Father demonstrates His love for us by sending God the Son to die for our sin, and He pours His love into us by giving us God the Holy Spirit to dwell with us.
As the Holy Spirit dwells with us, He begins to produce in us the very love that God the Father has poured into us by producing in us the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22).
While God does the pouring and growing of His love in our lives, we are not passive. Our role is to love as we have been loved.
James Ussher was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh. Tradition has it that he was once shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland and wandered, looking for help, to the house of a local pastor. The pastor did not believe that the scraggly man standing before him was his own Archbishop, so he devised a test.
“How many commandments are there, my good sir?”
Surely the Archbishop would not only know that there are ten commandments, but also where in Scripture they are found. He could probably even quote them word-for-word.
“There are eleven commandments.”
Sure that he had proven that this imposter was no more the Archbishop than he himself was the King of England, the pastor sneered, “There are only 10.”
“If you bring me a Bible, I shall show you,” replied the aide-seeker.
Turning to John 13:34, he read, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
May you allow God to teach you how to love others as He has loved you.
About this Plan
Did you know that the Bible not only praises the ambitious person but that it actually offers counsel about what ambition should look like for the follower of Jesus? Join us as we unpack Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians on the topic of Christian ambition.
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