The Law of Love

Read His Words Before Ours!
Matthew 22:36-40
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Romans 12:1-2
Psalm 51:1-13  

Five years ago I heard a statement for the first time that completely revolutionized the way I thought of my faith.

“God told us to do two things. Love Him and love others.
If we are doing those two things, then we are living in His will.”

Sometimes I hear something that just sticks with me. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get that phrase out of my head, which leaves me pondering and wondering for days, sometimes weeks, what it actually means. Everything in me wanted to find something completely wrong with the statement I had heard. But like dominoes, the revelation of the truth behind those words kept falling.

If we love God with everything in us, then we will want to spend time reading His love story to us.

If we love God with all that we have, then we will want to spend time in prayer, talking with Him and listening to Him, because people spend time with those they love.

If we love God passionately and boldly, then we will fall more in love with who He is, and the more we love Him, the more we won’t be able to hold that love inside.

If we love God, then we will want to serve Him and we will want to do that by doing what His word tells us to do… loving others.

If we love God, then we will begin to look more and more like Him, because we always begin to resemble the people we spend the most time with.

I mean, clearly I could go on all day.

If we really are living out and doing exactly what Jesus tells us are the two most important commandments, then everything else He tells us to do will fall into place… because, by living out these commandments, we are allowing transformation.

When our minds are transformed, then our actions will follow suit.

We are told to “Love God and love your neighbor”, or “Love God and love others”.
But what exactly is Love?
Love is patient. It is kind. It doesn’t envy or boast. It isn’t arrogant and it isn’t rude or self seeking and it isn’t irritable or resentful.

Ladies. I suck at love.

But, if we are called to love God and others, that means practicing what love is every single day.

That won’t happen just by actions. I’m not going to wake up one day and all of a sudden never have an impatient bone in my body again. I’m human! You’re human. We are probably going to forget to show love in the next ten seconds.

But, the more we spend time with God in prayer and His word, the more we will become like Him.
Love, by definition, changes us.
It’s simply the nature of love.
By spending intentional time with Love Himself, everything about us will be remade, starting with our hearts and minds, which overflows into our actions.

So maybe in ten seconds I’ll forget to show some love, but in ten days, I’ll do a little bit better. I won’t snap so quickly.  And in ten years, I pray my mind has transformed even more, where maybe some days, I don’t snap at all.

I’m confident that Love will continue to remake me, not because of my effort,
but because I’m submitting to the law of Love Himself.

Love God, Love others, and Jesus will remake me in the process!

My dad always says, “If you are what you were, then you’re not.”
Meaning, if we are today, who we were when we first chose to give our lives to Christ, then maybe, just maybe, we aren’t actually living for Him.

Maybe we don’t actually love Him with everything we have.
Maybe we aren’t allowing Him to renew our minds and make us more like Him!


For some reason, the entire time I typed this, the old song, “Sanctuary” played in my head. A sanctuary is a place of refuge and safety, which is what I believe we become when we are people who passionately love God and love others. Let’s keep falling more and more in love with the King, and as a result, I know we will continue to be remade as He shapes us to look more like His own love.
​
Oh Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living
Sanctuary for You

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