Title: Does God Demand Love? (16)
Series: Weakness Is Your Greatest Strength
Author: Eddie Snipes
Text: Luke 7:47
Love gives; it does not demand. Can love be demanded at all? By definition, love is the act of giving oneself to another as a gift. A demanding spirit kills love and removes the opportunity to love. Love never demands, for it draws our heart to willfully give and submit to others.
Similarly, worship is also an act of willful submission from the heart. Worship is the response of honoring someone we respect, and being moved to show reverence to someone we hold in the highest regard.
Here we must distinguish between the world's view of these things and the biblical view. As we studied previously, biblical understanding is born out of spiritual discernment. We are always depending on the Holy Spirit to give us understanding of the scriptures.
When we are instructed to love, it is the word 'agape', which is the love of God that has first been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.1 Until we first receive the love of God, we do not have the power to love with agape love. The Bible clearly says, "We love God because He first loved us."2
Our love is a response to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. God first pours His love into us, and then commands us to take that love and extend it to others. In fact, that is an important demonstration of our love for God. The Bible teaches that love is what manifests (or reveals) that we are children of God. According to the Bible, the evidence that we belong to Christ is that righteousness will begin to work in us, and love will begin to flow out of us.3
Jesus also affirmed this when He said, "By this all will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."4 That word is agape. So, the evidence that you are God's child is that His agape love is in you, and agape is always outward focused, does not seek its own, does not parade itself, does not b ...
Series: Weakness Is Your Greatest Strength
Author: Eddie Snipes
Text: Luke 7:47
Love gives; it does not demand. Can love be demanded at all? By definition, love is the act of giving oneself to another as a gift. A demanding spirit kills love and removes the opportunity to love. Love never demands, for it draws our heart to willfully give and submit to others.
Similarly, worship is also an act of willful submission from the heart. Worship is the response of honoring someone we respect, and being moved to show reverence to someone we hold in the highest regard.
Here we must distinguish between the world's view of these things and the biblical view. As we studied previously, biblical understanding is born out of spiritual discernment. We are always depending on the Holy Spirit to give us understanding of the scriptures.
When we are instructed to love, it is the word 'agape', which is the love of God that has first been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.1 Until we first receive the love of God, we do not have the power to love with agape love. The Bible clearly says, "We love God because He first loved us."2
Our love is a response to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. God first pours His love into us, and then commands us to take that love and extend it to others. In fact, that is an important demonstration of our love for God. The Bible teaches that love is what manifests (or reveals) that we are children of God. According to the Bible, the evidence that we belong to Christ is that righteousness will begin to work in us, and love will begin to flow out of us.3
Jesus also affirmed this when He said, "By this all will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."4 That word is agape. So, the evidence that you are God's child is that His agape love is in you, and agape is always outward focused, does not seek its own, does not parade itself, does not b ...
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