To maintain the context, I’ll repeat a lot of what he says: “As you meditate with me on this issue of adoration, I wonder if you might be thinking this is something best left to contemplative order of monks – to those who have the time for such things. Possibly some readers – activists perhaps – are thinking: ‘All this is fine, but in a world such as ours we would be better given to social reform or works of charity. This is how we can best glorify God’.”

Of course, works of charity etc - in themselves, are not the best way to glorify God. I can’t understand how anyone could reach this position if they have taken into their heart all of what the Bible says about God.

We cannot truly love another unless we first love God. To be very clear about this issue – I’m using the word ‘love’, in the same way as the Greek word ‘agape’ is used – I’m not referring to the other forms of love which can only be expressed appropriately when included under the umbrella of ‘agape’, the perfect love of God. To love God above all other creation – is the highest priority, how could it be any different?

Selwyn goes onto say: “Work for God is important, but I stress again that the most effective service for God is accomplished by those who know Him intimately. … Contemplation of God and nearness to Him enables Him to direct His willing servant to the tasks that He wants done. … Adoration disinfects us from egoism (Henri Bremond).”

If we don’t have God as the highest priority – we run the risk of putting ourselves or others as the highest priority – this risk is often seen when we do works of charity etc, with the aim (sometimes unconsciously) to produce a feeling of self-satisfaction by doing ‘good’.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NIV): “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

Now – let me say once again; ‘why is it critical to have the love of God as our highest priority?  It is our loving contemplation of God and nearness to Him that enables Him to direct His willing servant to the tasks that He wants done!

Any comments?

In John’s Gospel, we find these verses in Chapter 14: 15-24 (NIV), Jesus talking to His disciples, just before His death: ” … If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

… On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

… Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

We can see from the above verses that if we love God we will try to keep His commands. The implications are important because Jesus is saying, in very clear terms, that if we demonstrate our love, by obeying His teaching (to the best of our ability) THEN the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit will dwell in us. Let me repeat – if you love Jesus you will try to follow this command (John 13:34), with all your strength: “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.”

The ‘other person’ to whom we pour out our love for - can be anyone in this world; they can be rich or poor, healthy or sick, of any race and belong to any culture, there are no exceptions. If, we are really follow the command Jesus has given us – then there can be no sense of superiority within His Church. If people, within a church, are holding onto an attitude of superiority – then God is not dwelling with them- they are empty of His Spirit.

Such people are spiritually dead; as, the key verse (Acts 17:28) for today’s study states: ‘For in Jesus we live and move and have our being.’ We can only live in Jesus if we are trying to follow His commands – simple, isn’t it?

I’m referring to the case which Selwyn mentions today, in regard to the following verses, 1 Corinthians 16:19-24 (NLT): “The churches here in the province of Asia send greetings in the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla  and all the others who gather in their home for church meetings. All the brothers and sisters here send greetings to you. Greet each other with Christian love.

Here is my greeting in my own handwriting – Paul. If anyone does not love the Lord, that person is cursed. Our Lord, come!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus.”

How anyone can intrepret the last verse to mean –  to love ONLY those in Christ Jesus – is difficult to accept, unless they are deliberately trying to mislead people. 

As Selwyn mentions you don’t have to look very far, to read in Galatians 6:10: “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone – especially to those in the family of faith.”

As you would know there are many verses concerning the life of love that we attempt to live with the help of God’s power.

Luke 6:27: “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

John 13:34: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Romans 13:8-9: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Ephesians 5:1: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

1 John 3:10: “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”

I’ve included the above verses, to demonstrate the need to test out intrepreatation of one verse, against the universal truths found throughout Scripture.

Selwyn concludes:“Does this special bond between believers, what ACts 2:42 calls ‘the fellowship’, mean that our love becomes exclusive? No.

Loving the fellowship enables us to love others better. Love that is restricted is constricted.”

It’s so very true – the love of those who follow Jesus – is unrestricted (in regard to all people, however, this obviously excludes the love of evil). Do you agree?

Paul’s letter to the Romans 8:31b-39 (NLT): ” … If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ”For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,  (nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As we think of the wounds in Jesus’ hands – we see the evidence of His suffering. These wounds shows us, in a very vivid way, His love for us; and, from the above verses, we can be extremely confident that we will never be separated from His love, by any other power!

Okay, now looking at Selwyn’s study – I thought the story taken from the book Ten Fingers for God by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, was very good. 

It supported Selwyn’s introduction: “ … Christian literature fairly bulges with the truth that those who have suffered, and suffered deeply, derived enormous strength from the fact that the God they served has also endured pain.”

Lastly, I thought that the prayer for today, is worth repeating – and also worth, some ‘long’ meditation, on how we may respond to its challenge.

“Lord Jesus, what a mystery – the God of the stars becomes the God of the scars. All of this You have done for me, yet what have I done for You? I give myself and all I am to You this day. Receive me - (in Your love) and Your name. Amen.”

However, I would like to say that John 13:34, is a favourite verse of mine: “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

It’s a clarification of the golden rule – ‘to love others as you would like to them to love you’ – but, our understanding of love is flawed. Consequently, we need a perfect example of love,  to follow – Jesus, by His actions, gives us that example. In this aspect it is a totally new commandment -  this commandment is to replace the human interpretation of ‘love your neighbour’. To understand the difference, requires the moulding of our heart into a new shape by the hands of the Holy Spirit.

Any comments?

Verses 8 and 9, from Chapter 13, of the book of Hebrews (the author of this letter has not been verified) – supports our trust in God’s promises: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them. … “.

Jesus, our God who walked with Adam and Eve, who punished those nations that did wicked acts in His sight – and who, as a man, died - a perfect sacrifice on a cross – is the same then, as He is now. His love for the world – His creation – is never ending – it’s His love expressed through grace that gives us the strength to carry on – proclaiming His name. 

Can there be anything better  – than to know that we are loved – by Jesus?

In the study, he tells us about a psychologist, who because of  physical abuse suffered as a child, found it difficult to express love.

The psychologist’s story continued, as follows: ” … one day I found Christ – or rather He found me – as I knelt at the cross, seeing how much I was loved, the scales fell from my eyes and my own love flamed in response. I found love for God and a love for others rising inside me in a way that I had never known or felt before.”

I too, can testify to the fact, that before my conversion I was unable to truly love other people. Yet, from the very moment when I received God’s love into my life – I was able to ‘see’ other people in the light of His love. The difference between before and after my re-birth, was as great as the difference between night and day - God enabled me to have relationships with people which were not based on what I could get out of the relationship but what I could put into it, through the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible verses set for today’s reading and meditation; often cause me to pause and dwell on the amazing gift that God has given to His children - in addition to saving us from death; He has given us the ability to love, as He does. It’s a gift that should never be left unwrapped and not used – it should be opened and lavishly used every day – because, the more we use, the more we are given!

I pray that these verses (1 John 4:7-21, NLT), inspire you as well: “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.”

These are really, amazing words - I think, the challenge for us, is to live  – fully trusting in their meaning – every single day; don’t you agree?

May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon. And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.”

A curious thing to say – ‘to fill the gaps in your faith’, maybe something is lost in the translation? I think it has more to do with an understanding of the consequencesof our faith - the strength of our relationship with Jesus – as, we run our race and are gradually transformed into the likeness of Christ; we, as we become more Christlike, are better able to understand ‘how’ we should live a holy life.  One aspect of the ‘how’, is to excel in love! What are your thoughts on this?

I really like this statement made by Selwyn in today’s study: “The desire to excel in everything you do is commendable, and will yield earthly rewards; to excel in love, however, brings spiritual rewards – it ‘strengthens your heart and makes it blameless in holiness.”

I’ll finish with these verses from 1 Peter 1:13-16 (NLT): “So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

We. who are the adopted children of God – must be holy. The way we live our lives, MUST be different to all those who do not know Jesus. This is not a nice option for an elite few within our Christian community – it is God’s demand, directed to everyone who can hear His voice. If, we do not follow His call on our lives, then we are not one His flock, as Peter, writes in 1 Peter 2:10: ” … you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

If you cannot show others the goodness of God, by the way you live your life, then you are still in darkness – as one, who pretends to see the light.

What’s your view?