The disciples followed Jesus because they loved Him. But the kind of love that they had was human love, and when the time came for it to be tested, they all denied Him.
Matthew 26:56 …Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.
The disciples denied Jesus despite loving Him; however, something happened on the day of pentecost whereby the same men who had initially ran away started giving themselves boldly to be crucified for the sake of the gospel. That is the distinction between human and divine love: divine love makes sacrifice easy.
The hardships that we go through aren’t times to question God’s love for us because it has already been demonstrated at the cross; those times come to test how much we love God and how much we have been perfected to grow in His love.
Ephesians 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ–
Maturity in this Christian life means maturing in love. Remember, Holiness is the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit which is the manifestation of love in all its diversities.
This kingdom is not ruled by power but by love; it is the language in this kingdom.
Matthew 24:12, 2 Timothy 3:1-2
The love of many will grow cold in the last days because of using their physical senses; that is what Satan does: He permits us to allow senses to overshadow us, causing our love life to start going down, and the moment that happens, our service begins to fall short of God’s expectations.
That is why God told the church of Ephesus that, much as they were doing everything good, they had lost their first love. We must guard our hearts against anything that will cause our love to grow cold because that is Satan’s intention.
People will do all kinds of negative things to us, but those things are meant to test our love (the kind that even when you are hanging on the cross, you can say, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing”).
Our ultimate goal is to be like Jesus, and the greatest test that we shall ever go through is the test of love because that is what reveals the God that we serve.
1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts,…
We must pursue love, for it is the only thing that makes us look like God. The Bible encourages us to feed our enemies when they are hungry and give them a drink when they are thirsty; that is not something that human love can do. That is why God is bringing us to a higher dimension so that we become like Him.
1 John 4:7-9
God showed us His nature of love by sacrificing Jesus for us. Likewise, we also ought to reciprocate the same love towards our fellow brothers and sisters by sacrificing for them.
Love is not defined in this kingdom; it must be demonstrated, and the only way we can show the world that we love God is by loving one another, for God dwells in people. 1 John 5:23, Romans 13:8
Further study
1 Thessalonians 3:12
2 Samuel 24:24
2 Corinthians 5:14
1 Corinthians 13
John 17:26
STAY BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVORED, WE LOVE YOU.
PASTOR BEN OCHOLA.