Category: Love

A Life with Love Overcomes Evil

The Lord says that we are never to repay evil for evil. One of the meanings of evil is to cause grief. When someone causes us grief then the temptation is to return grief to them.

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Romans 12:17a

The Lord says never to do return evil for evil but rather we are to overcome evil with good. This word good means the highest form of love. It always takes two to argue or fight. If one will refuse to return grief but chooses to give love rather than trying to hurt the one who has hurt them then there is no contention.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21

The Lord says that it is foolish to quarrel with one another. Keep away from strife and keep strife out of your marriage and family.

Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man,
But any fool will quarrel. Proverbs 20:3

The Bible describes a foolish person as one who consumes. They will consume you and your life if you allow them. Stay away from a fool. They only bring destruction to themselves and those whom they are around.

But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Galatians 5:15

Don’t even begin to quarrel. You both will say things that you will regret. You can not take back your words and your words destroy the one who you are supposed to love. After the argument is over then you have two defeated and sad people.

The beginning of strife is like letting out water, So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out. Proverbs 17:14

Turn to the Lord rather than turning away from Him. When there is a disagreement or someone has been hurt then be quick to ask forgiveness and to say that you are sorry. Humility goes a long way in healing hurts. Don’t be arrogant. There are always things that you do not know. The Lord is a present help in time of trouble.

An arrogant man stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. Proverbs 28:25

Love seeks reconciliation and gives grace rather than wanting the other person to be proven wrong and disgrace. Love covers a multitude of sins.

Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions. Proverbs 10:12

You will discover as you show mercy to others then you both benefit. If you are not merciful then you do harm not only to the other person but to yourself as well.

The merciful man does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm. Proverbs 11:17

The Lord is merciful to us and He does not give us what we deserve. Love others as the Lord has loved you.

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. James 5:11

Being a Christian means that we do not want to be controlled by our flesh and do what our flesh wants to do but we want to be controlled by God’s Spirit and we want to do as we ought.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22-24

You will find that as you walk in God’s Spirit and live according to the power that He has given to you that you will be walking in obedience to Him. You will be fulfilling the Law by loving your neighbor as yourself. This will keep you from sinning and suffering the torment of regret and sadness of destroying those who you want to love the most. You will see that love overcomes evil and you will both be blessed.

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:14-17

A Life with Love Gives Identity

Love is relational and relationships give identity. When a man gets a wife he becomes a husband and when a woman gets married she becomes a wife. A man becomes a father when he has a child and a woman becomes a mother when her baby is born. Love gives identity and purpose and meaning in life. Relationships define the people who are in them.

The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:20-23

Man did not name himself until the Lord brought Eve to him. When he had finished naming the animals then the Lord brought Eve to him and Adam immediately recognized her and said, “this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman…” and then he called himself man. His identity came from his relationship with God and his relationship with Eve. God loved Adam and Adam loved Eve. Adam’s love for God was a response to God’s love for him and Eve’s love for her husband is a response of Adam’s love for Eve.

We love, because He first loved us. I John 4:19

Someone once said, “Women were created from the rib of man to be beside him, not from his head to top him, nor from his feet to be trampled by him, but from under his arm to be protected by him, near to his heart to be loved by him.”

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:24,25

Adam and Eve were the only part of creation that could receive and know God’s love because they were the only part of creation that had a spirit. Love is spiritual and man receives love through his spirit and experiences it through his soul and expresses it through his body. Adam and Eve became husband and wife and with their identity came meaning and purpose in life. Love brings fulfillment as we fulfill the purpose for which God created us. Adam and Eve needed each other to be the person and to do that which God had created them to do. Eve was to become a mother and once again she would receive a new identity and a new purpose in life.

The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; Genesis 2:8,9a

Love provides what is good. The Lord was not only Adam’s Creator but his Provider. The Lord provided everything that Adam and Eve needed. He gave them a home in the garden of Eden and the Lord gave them each other to love and to be loved. He gave Adam work to do, for God made man to work and He called Eve to be a wife and a mother. He made Adam for the dust of the ground so he related to the world and his work involved the world. God made Eve from a person and a woman relates to people and so her work involved people. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world with an identity and purpose. God’s love had given their lives meaning and fulfillment. They loved God and loved each other. If only…they would not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then they would live in this perfect state of love and harmony with God and each other forever.

“But he who sins against me injures himself;
All those who hate me love death.” Proverbs 8:36

The Lord has not changed. He is good and His plans for us are good. His design for marriage is good. If only we would keep His commandments and follow His instructions then we will live and our relationships will be filled with love. If only…we would not sin. It is sin that brings death to our relationships and marriages. It is sin that destroys all that is precious to us. When we sin against God then we hurt ourselves and if we hate what He says then we love death.

A Life with Love is to Be Expressed

Love is a gift that is meant to be expressed. Love is not love until it is given away. Love is a gift and must be received if it is to be known. God is love and unless one has received God into their life then they have never known unconditional love. Jesus Christ loved us and died for us when we were His enemies and when we had no love for Him. His love was not conditional on our love for him.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Everyone longs for unconditional love in relationships, that is, a love that accepts them for who they are and not a type of love based on what they have to give or offer to the one who says they love them. Unconditional love is God’s gift to us.

the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23b

This love of God which was expressed through Jesus Christ is the greatest gift that we can receive and that we can give to another. Just as this gift did not come without a cost to the One who gave it, so also, when we give this gift it does not come without a cost to us.

And forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Luke 11:4a

Unconditional love begins with forgiving the debt that is owed to us. When we love and forgive the sins that others have done to us then we are being like Jesus Christ and expressing His love. We are forgiving a debt that we did not owe. We are loving as Christ has loved us and we are loving as we want to be loved.

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:8-10

Before Adam and Eve sinned they did not need any laws other than the one that they Lord gave them to “not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, in order to allow them to express their free will in loving Him by honoring Him in what He said. In the same way, the one who loves as Jesus Christ has loved us is free from any laws, for love is the fulfillment of the law. God’s laws were given to instruct us how to love God and how to love each other. They were not given to restrict us from any good pleasure but that we might enjoy the good pleasures He has for us.

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 16:11

Jesus Christ came to give us life and to make known to us the path of life. He came that we might live forever in God’s love and experience the fullness of joy and His pleasures forever. When we know Him then we become secure in Him and His love. It is His love that allows us to love others with the love which we have experienced. An unconditional love is a love that is not based on who someone is or what someone has but a love that accepts the person in spite of shortcomings or what they have done. It is a love that comes from the one loving and not from the one who is loved.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. I John 3:1-3

Although many in the world do not yet know Jesus Christ, they can see the love of God as it is expressed through those who know Him and have been born again. All men will know that we are His disciples and belong to Him if we have love for one another. God has loved us and His love is meant to be expressed to others that the world will see what it means to know Him and follow Him.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34,35

A Life with Love Can Be Found

Just as love can be lost, love also can be found. Those who find love, that is, true unconditional love, are never the same. Love changes a person. Love brings life to the spirit, soul and body of the one who finds love. Love is meant to be experienced. This is what it means to “know” love.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. I John 4:7,8

God is love and the one who knows God will also know love. Love is spiritual but is felt and experienced in the soul and expressed through the body. Adam and Eve had no love of their own apart from God.

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

Just as the Bible says that everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. One has to be born again to experience the love and the knowledge of God. Until one is born again he is still separated from knowing and experiencing the love that God has for him.

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:3-6

Just as the spirit of man died when Adam and Eve sinned so also his spirit must be made alive. Man is spiritually made alive when he becomes born again. For this reason, it is not enough to know about God’s love with the mind and even feel it with the emotions, unless we have been born again. It will only be an intellectual belief or an emotional faith until one is born again. When a person is born again, they are no longer separated from God but they have become restored in their relationship with God through the Spirit of God. God’s Spirit has become united with their spirit to make them spiritually alive. The born again one not only knows about the love of God but God’s Spirit has caused them to born again into God’s own family and they now have found and discovered God’s love for them personally. They have become a child of God and a recipient of God’s love forever.

Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3:7

There is no other way to find love than through being restored back into a love relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God sent Jesus Christ into the world that man might be restored to the love relationship that God had with Adam and Eve before they sinned. Jesus Christ did not come into the world to judge man but that man might be restored and know God’s love.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:16,17

When God saves a person, they are saved and restored in their spirit, soul and body. They are saved from eternal death and given life in these three areas. When one is born again he can now love and worship God in his spirit, love and pray with his spirit and his soul, and love and serve God with His spirit, soul and body. He has been given a new life in Christ and every area of him experiences the love of God in Christ Jesus. When someone is restored to God and finds God’s love then he has found the greatest treasure of all.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32

Just as Adam and Eve lost everything pertaining to life when they sinned so also when one receives Jesus Christ into their life and is born again, they find not only love but everything else pertaining to life.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6

A Life that Does Not Give Away Intimacy

There is a saying, “If the milk is free why buy the cow?”. There are certain gifts that have been given to us and that a young lady should not give away except to the right person at the right time. She should not give away her body to men but it is to be saved for her husband alone and only should be given to him after he has taken her in marriage. Marriage is a man’s commitment to a young lady to love her, to cherish her, to protect her, to provide for her and ultimately to lay down his life for her. Many a man will make promises to get what they want and then once they have gotten their desires then they never fulfill their promises. Engagement is not marriage and the same rules for dating apply during the engagement period.

I Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Marriage is not a 50/50 proposition but it is a 100/100 relationship. Each one gives all of oneself to the other so that they might become one. However, what is right before marriage is wrong after marriage. It is right to abstain from sexual relations before marriage and wrong to withhold from each other after marriage. There is a saying that girls that do “it” before marriage don’t want to do “it” after marriage so it is foolish for both to compromise God’s standard of morality. God is not mocked. He has His standards for our good and we are foolish not to abide by what He has said.

Galatians 6:7,8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Moral excellence is the root of true love in a marriage and it is expressed through waiting until after the wedding to have a physical relationship. If two people are morally excellent in their standards then they will trust each other after they are married. If a man and woman compromise before marriage then the trust will not be there as it could have been had they waited.

II Peter 1:5-7 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

If you have compromised God’s moral standard then it is not too late to repent but there needs to be repentance and though that may be hard it is necessary. Repentance means that you are turning your back on your sin and turning to God. However, you must keep turning to the Lord so that you do not fall back into your old ways. You also must flee from temptation. Temptations are often much stronger if you have tasted of the pleasures of that particular sin. You do not miss what you have never known.

II Timothy 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

You can, by God’s grace, keep His standards of righteousness. God is faithful and will provide a way of escape to the one who calls on Him and puts their trust in Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

 

A Life with Love Can Be Lost

When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the Lord said that they would die. The Bible says that the sin brings death. Man earned death when he sinned.

For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23a

The death that man experiences is first in his spirit. Man becomes separated from God spiritually. The spirit is what God made to commune with God. God is Spirit and those who know Him communicate in a spiritual way with God. They worship Him in spirit, they pray or talk with Him through their spirit and He speaks to them through their spirit. Man is the only spiritual creation that God made and separates man from the rest of all creation. When God made man in His image part of that was that God made man spiritual, to know Him and to be in a relationship with Him. That love relationship was lost when man sinned.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24

The death that man next feels is the death to his soul. This death brings the shame of evil and the knowledge of the good that they have lost. One of the aspects of the meaning of good is the highest form of love and so when we sin then we lose experiencing and feeling love from the One whom we have sinned against. The relationship is no longer the same until it is restored. The love has been lost. God still loved man when he sinned but man no longer felt that love. It was lost to him. The soul is made up of the mind, will and emotions. Death to the soul brings the knowledge of the good thing that we had and we lost through our own foolish actions. It is that sick feeling of regret that we feel after we sin. Also, because we have sinned now our will has become a slave of sin and we sin again in the same manner even though with our mind we know it is not good.

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. John 8:34

The last death that we will experience will be death to our body. This death is the destruction that we bring to ourselves through our sin. When we sin we lose the healthy love that we should have to take care of our own body. If Adam and Eve had not sinned then they would have never died. They would have been able to live forever in the presence of God and experienced the delight and joy of being in the garden with Him. We have all inherited the death that Adam brought to us when he sinned. Sickness and death is a part of the curse that came when man rebelled against God by not obeying Him.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— Romans 5:12

So, when man sinned he not only came into the knowledge of evil and lost his innocence and experienced shame but he also came into the knowledge of good. This knowledge of good is what revealed the darkness and sickness of sin and with it came great fear. The knowledge of good that man had now lost was the experiential knowledge of the love, the peace and the incredible joy and delight of a perfect relationship with God and the rest of creation. This knowledge of good brought the torment that one feels knowing what they have lost. One does not miss what one has never known. The knowledge of evil takes away the innocence of trust, of true love, of believing the best and of not fearing. Man lost everything pertaining to life when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but most importantly he lost the delight of living in and experiencing God’s perfect love every second of every day. Adam and Eve also lost the perfect love that they had for each other and with it the trust and innocence in their marriage.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, I John 4:18a

A Life that Chooses Good Friends

You will become like your friends therefore the most important decisions that you make in life after choosing the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior is who will be your friends. Choose good friends and you life will be blessed. Choose bad friends and your life will be filled with grief. This is one of the most profound choices that you will make in life. The companions with whom you walk through life will influence your other decisions.

Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Choose only to be with wise men and run from fools. A fool is someone who lives as if there is no God. They may even say that they believe in God but if they are living as if there is no God then they are living like a fool. Run from them.

Psalms 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

All of us came into the world with a foolish heart. We must turn away from our foolish ways and turn to the Lord with all of our heart. Don’t look at what a person says but at what they do. It is by their deeds that people distinguish themselves.

Proverbs 20:11 It is by his deeds that a lad distinguishes himself
If his conduct is pure and right.

In the same way, the kind of friends that you attract will be the kind of people whom you are attracted to. Is your life pure and right? It is not only by their deeds that a person distinguishes himself but also by his type of speech.

Proverbs 22:11 He who loves purity of heart
And whose speech is gracious, the king is his friend.

Choose only friends who desire a pure heart. Those who want their heart to be pure will be discerning about where their eyes go and what their ears hear. What goes into  the heart of a man is what comes out of him and what comes out through his mouth is what defiles him.

Mark 7:20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

It is those who have a pure heart who will see Jesus.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Our greatest need in life is to see God for all that we do in life is a response to our view of God. If our view is right then our conduct will be upright. If our view of God is twisted then we will be crooked in our ways. If we choose friends who do not know God or do not see Him then they will lead us astray and we will forget our God.

I Corinthians 15:33 Do not let anyone fool you. Bad people can make those who want to live good become bad.

Choose good friends and choose to be a good friend to others. Friendship means speaking the truth in love.

Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

If your friends are good then they will point you to Jesus and help you stay on the right path. Sometimes they might tell you what you don’t want to hear but it is much better than to have friends who will always tell you what you “want” to hear. Our hearts are deceitful so we need others in our lives who will help us in our times of weakness and temptation. The temptations will pass and the blessings will follow if we are faithful.

Proverbs 27:9 Oil and perfume make the heart glad,
So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.

 

 

 

 

A Life with Love is to Be With

Love is to be with the one whom you love. A person’s presence is one of the greatest gifts that they can give to the one whom they love. The Lord gave Eve to be with Adam.

The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, Genesis 3:12

It is not good for anyone to be alone for very long.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18a

The Lord made us to be in a relationship with Him and to be in relationship with others. Woe to the person who falls and there is not another to lift him up.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

A marriage with Jesus Christ as the head of the marriage and family will not quickly or easily be torn apart. One who is married will not stay down when they fall if their partner will life them up through prayer and encouragement. A family that prays together stays together.

And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, Mark 3:13,14

Jesus chose His disciples because He wanted them to be with Him. He wanted them to be with Him before they served Him. The Lord made man because He wanted man to be with Him. He did not need man but He loved man and delighted in Him. In a similar way, the Lord made Eve to be with Adam.

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Genesis 2:12a

The Lord gives a wife to a man to first be with her husband. Notice that the Lord did not give Eve any job to do other than to respond to her husband. A woman needs to be with her husband and learn to respond to him first and then to love her husband by serving and helping him according to his needs. A man marries a woman because he believes she wants to be with him. A man longs to be wanted just as a woman longs to be loved.

so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands,Titus 2:4a

The word “love” in this verse means to be with and delight in, in other words, to want her husband. This is the only time in the Bible this particular word is used. It means that the wife is to be a “lover of her husband, in other words, to delight in him”. This is also what the Lord desires in His bride, the church. Jesus Christ wants us to delight ourselves in Him.

Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Even greater is the fact that the Lord delights in His children.

But the blameless in their walk are His delight. Proverbs 11:20b

The Lord loves those who are His and especially delights when they come to Him in prayer.

But the prayer of the upright is His delight. Proverbs 15:8b

Love means to be with the one whom you love. The Lord loves it when we come to Him and delight ourselves in Him. A husband loves it when his wife wants him and even more when she tells him she wants him. A wife loves it when her husband wants to just be with her and listen to her. Children will do almost anything for their parent to be with them. If you love someone then you want to be with them. Jesus Christ came down to earth to be with man so that He could remove the barriers forever so that man could be with God forever.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, I Peter 3:18a

A Life that Believes

Believing in the Lord is what gives us life. If you want to live life to the fullest then you must believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John 20:30,31 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Jesus Christ performed many signs and miracles attesting to the fact that He was God. He died and rose again and more than five hundred people saw Him after He was raised from the dead.

I Corinthians 15:3-6a For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time,

God’s Word and the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who believe.

Romans 1:16,17  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Someone who believes will come to the Lord in faith. It is coming to the Lord in faith is what saves a person. Intellectual belief is not enough. We must come to Him and put our trust in Him to forgive us of our sins. One of the aspects of faith is to come to the One whom you believe in.

Ephesians 2:8,9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The Gospel is God’s good news for everyone. Salvation is a gift from God through Jesus Christ and is not a result of any amount of good works that we could do to earn it. It is a gift from God to all who will believe and put their trust in Jesus Christ to forgive them of their sins. 

John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

All who come to Him will be received by Him and will receive forgiveness. He will not cast anyone out who comes to Him. There is no sin too great and His grace invites all to come.

Luke 7:47-50 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Have you come to Jesus for forgiveness? Coming to Him is the faith that He wants from us. For this reason prayer is an expression of faith. We come to Him in prayer and receive Him and what He has to offer then our response will be one of love for Him. When we realize how great a debt of sin He has forgiven us through His death on the cross then our love for Him will be great. We owe Him everything.

 

 

A Life with Love Needs Good Friends

If you want to find love and keep love in your life and in your marriage then you need good friends. You will become like your friends. If you choose good friends then you will do what is good and right. If you spend time with people who compromise and do what is wrong then it is only a matter of time before you will do what is wrong. Love needs to be nurtured and a truly good friend will encourage faithfulness, love and respect in your life, marriage and friendships.

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” I Corinthians 15:33

Moral excellence is the root of true love. Love and trust go together and if there is not moral excellence then there will not be true love. Bad friends corrupts good morals. When Adam and Eve sinned the Lord asked them who told them they were naked and had they eaten from the tree of which He told them not to eat.

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis 3:11

Eve should never have been talking with the serpent. When the serpent questioned whether the Lord had really said something that was evidence enough that he was bad company. The serpent questioning God’s Word engaged Eve in a dialogue of which the serpent would eventually question the consequences of disobeying.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

The serpent questioned what the Lord said and then he questioned whether anything would happen. He put doubt in Eve’s mind. Someone who doubts God’s Word can not be trusted.

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! Genesis 3:4

The Lord did say not to eat from the tree and the Lord did indeed say that they would die if they did so. If the Lord says something then He wants us to believe it. It does not matter if no one else believes it. Unbelief leads to disobedience. If you want to grow strong in love and faithful in obedience then you need to have good friends who will point you to the One who is love.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. I John 4:7,8

A true friend will be more concerned about your relationship with the Lord and what is best for you than their friendship with you. They will want what is best for you over what you think of them.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:6

We all have a need for friends. If you are a wise and good friend to others then you will attract the same kind of people who will want to have you as a friend. A true friend loves at all times and will protect you from being vulnerable to the wrong kind of people.

A friend loves at all times, Proverbs 17:17a

A wise mother will know her child’s friends. She will ask “who were you with?” and “who told you to do that?”. Other than choosing to follow the Lord the second most important decision is “who” will be your friends. If you want to guard and keep the love in your marriage then you will be very careful who your friends are. Many an adulterous affair has happened with a good friend of the couple. If someone is not faithful to the Lord then they can not be trusted. Also, a husband should never be alone with another woman other than his wife nor should a wife be alone with any other man other than her husband.

Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy man? Proverbs 20:6

Many a person will proclaim or pretend to be a friend but truly good friends are rare and more precious than anything money can buy. Jesus Christ came to be our friend when He laid down His life for us. Those who choose Him first to be their friend will learn what true friendship is and will recognize a true friend when one comes into their life.

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

When you are married then your best friend should be your spouse. Friendship is the union of two souls and the Lord brought Eve along to be Adam’s companion and friend. A great marriage is made up of not only two lovers but two soulmates.