The Measure of Love
By Bonnie Jones
June 2019
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
Recently the Lord spoke to me regarding His greatest commandment, “Love” and why it’s so important to Him. He said, “You see I measure the amount of love the saints have one for another, not the love they have for Me. They can only love Me to the measure they love one another. To be honest with you, I had never considered that concept.
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21)
He continued, “This is where they are today. Love Me, love yourself and love your neighbor as yourself. Yet some are still unable to love one another. Why? Because they have never learned to love their own self. Pride has set up in their heart and they think it’s foolish to love them selves. So today I’m shedding light on their soul so they walk in forgiveness of self. Then they can forgive others. Not only will they love others, they will also love themselves.”
Mistaken Identity
Why can’t a Christian love them self? Matthew 22:39 says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Well how can we love our neighbor if we can’t love our self? Have we bitten into a lie of the enemy and embraced his thoughts toward us instead of God’s. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
The Father sees His children through the loving eyes of Jesus not the sin of the world. Therefore the Father says His children have been crucified with Christ so they now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved them and gave Himself for them (Galatians 2:20). They are joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) who walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) and no weapon formed against them shall prosper. (Isaiah 54:17) They are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and walk in the light as He is the Light because they are the children of Light. (Ephesians 5:8)
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:17-19)
Knowing God Through Love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)
In the same way God first loved us, so we must love one another. It doesn’t matter if the other person doesn’t receive our love. No! We are commanded to love them. It was because of His unconditional love for us we were drawn to God and chose to fellowship with Him. In like turn, as we love one another without condemnation, criticism and conditions, they will be drawn to the Christ in us. Then the measure of our love increases toward the Father.
As I’m writing this I’m reminded of Bob’s death experience on August 8, 1975. As he stood in line waiting to go into the heart of the Lord, a severely arthritic ninety-three year old woman stood directly in front of Bob. When the Lord asked her if she learned to love she replied, “Yes Lord only you.” His reply to her was that she became widowed at an early age but grew bitter. Yes she loved the Lord and attended church however she let bitterness set up in her heart and never shared the love of Jesus with any one. Instead she bit their heads off by grumbling and complaining. Although she was taken into the heart of the Lord, she received no rewards. Therefore her measurement of love was minute in comparison to what it could have been. She probably spent better than fifty or sixty years growing more and more bitter instead of developing the fruit of love one for another. Again let me remind you what the Lord said, “You see I measure the amount of love the saints have one for another, not the love they have for Me. They can only love Me to the measure they love one another.”
Love Is Forgiveness
Love and forgiveness go hand in hand. They are the two sides of the same coin. Forgiveness is part of the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew 6 Jesus said, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Verse 12) “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15) Therefore, if we truly love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind we will love our neighbor as our self, because we view our self as a new creation redeemed from sin and walking in the nature of Christ. Forgiveness is part of our nature. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Remember Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34). In the same way we must forgive those who sin against us.
Let’s us look at verse 13a of the Lord’s Prayer. “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Years ago I inquired of the Lord regarding this. Why are we asking God not to lead us into temptation? He wouldn’t do that! This is what He taught me from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. God accepted Abel’s offering while He rejected Cain’s and Cain grew angry. And the Lord spoke to Cain asking him why he was angry and looking sad, depressed and dejected? (None of these feelings are from God. They are generated in the flesh by embracing the enemy.) But here lies the answer. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it. (Verse 7 Amplified)
Sin, which is anything apart from God’s nature of love, comes knocking at the door of our mind constantly. But because we’ve been bought with a price and now walk in the divine nature of Christ we must choose to rule over the temptation of the enemy. Sin’s desire for our soul is strong but the love of God flowing through a Christian must be far greater. Therefore we choose to love and always forgive everyone. There is no exception!
Unfortunately for Cain, he immediately lured Abel into the field and killed him. Instead of loving his brother, he allowed offense, jealousy, bitterness and hatred to set up in his heart. All these ungodly things outweighed the love of the Father in his heart. It is because of our love relationship with the Lord that we develop His divine nature. It is His love that flows through us. And it is through Him we love others. Therefore, it is through Him we forgive also. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15)
Time For Self-Examination
“Pride has set up in their heart and they think it’s foolish to love them selves.” Why is it pride? To believe anything less than what the Word of God says about His children is pride. We are His children and He is Love. Therefore we must be vessels of love and see our self as His “Beloved.” After all God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6) It is not prideful to love your self. No that’s a lie of the enemy. We must see our self as He does. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
So He’s shedding light on our soul so that we can see the error of our way and repent. Then we’ll walk in total forgiveness and love one another as our self. I believe Colossians 3 gives an excellent understanding of a Christian’s view of self.
Set Your Mind on Things Above
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Put To Death The Old Nature
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Character of the New Man
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
My prayer is that we all choose to love and forgive one another just as the Father loves and forgives us. Remember He measures the amount of love the saints have for one another, not the love they have for Him. Christians are building their heavenly bank account by the measure of love they demonstrate on earth. The ninety-three year old lady only made it into heaven but she had an empty bank account. So love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as your self. Love your self as God loves you and gave His Son for you.
Hopelessness: The Silent Killer
Many times the Lord gives me with a prophetic phrase or caption that literally surprises me and causes me to ponder. Sometimes there’s a knowing in my spirit while other times I need to seek Him for understanding.
Awakening To Awareness
Recently in a trance, I saw the front page of a newspaper. Across the top section of the paper the headlines read “NEW IDENTITY”. This was written in bold six-inch gold letters overlaying a red background. There were several subtitles listed below however I was only allowed to read the first one. It said, “AWAKENING TO AWARENESS”.
Trackbacks and pingbacks
No trackback or pingback available for this article.
Leave a reply