Intense Love

Oh, how casually we use the word "love" - we love ice cream, shoes, flowers, the mountains or the beach. The word, however, rarely describes depth or intensity; that is known best by how love-of-it plays out in our lives. Paul devoted an entire chapter to the excellence of love (or charity), and he begins the chapter describing us when love is absent. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1). This should come as no surprise to you but we are not naturally filled with the kind of love Paul describes. No, such unselfish love for others is alien-foreign to our sin-nature; it does not rule us by default. John explains where this kind of love comes from: "Beloved, let us [unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves [others] is born of God and knows God [through personal experience]." (1 John 4:1). My kind of love is not sustainable because it diminishes when trampled or rejected by someone's unlovable behavior; God's kind of love, however, is sustainable by the power of The Holy Spirit Who lives within Believers. His Love is powerful and effective enough to overcome when all we can muster is noisy clanging. Make no mistake, love is required for a Spirit-filled walk - there's nothing casual about it. Love God intensely so you can intensely love others.