Covenant Loving
For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about understanding the covenant living. We have learned that while it is great and all to sing about God as a covenant keeper, it is even much more important to understand this dimension of our God and see it manifest in our lives. In case you missed the past two weeks, please find the articles here:
And today, we venture into Covenant Loving; exciting stuff, huh?
John 3:16 (NLT)
For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God loved us so much that He sent His son on the earth for humanity’s sake. I hope you do know that Jesus on earth was fully God yet still fully man:
Colossians 1:19 (NKJV)
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.
Now when we speak of all fullness, it means that God the Father, and God the Spirit were in Jesus (the Trinity). This is why Jesus could boldly claim that He and the Father were one.
Despite being fully God, Jesus became man, and bore the sin nature in himself, so that you and I could receive salvation. What a love, huh? God’s love is mind-blowing, it is difficult to comprehend, let alone reciprocate it. What powers our love for God is the spirit. Since God is Spirit, we can only learn how to love Him by the spirit.
I Corinthians 13:8a NKJV
Love never fails
This particular chapter is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. You will find it often being recited at weddings and other functions. But we do not pay enough attention to this particular part: Love never fails.
Do you know why love does not fail?
It is because God is love. God does not have love. He is love. Love is His very nature. Thus, if we believe that God will never fail, then it is correct to also believe that love does not fail. If you were to look over your life and notice some of its aspects failing, then you can rest assured that love is absent in that particular aspect. Any time that love is introduced in an equation, that equation cannot fail, simply because love is in it.
Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Signs of Love
Sacrifice
The greatest show of love is sacrifice. Jesus was no sinner, yet he became sin just so that we can become the righteousness of God. The word sacrifice means to give up something of value. Something of value can be your time (especially in this time and age where feel like we have a million and one things to accomplish). It could be money, your favorite hoodie, or in Jesus’ case, your very own life! Giving up something we love is not easy. But when love is involved, then you will gladly sacrifice for the other person (married and dating humans, hello!)
Jesus the man was not so thrilled with the idea of dying on the cross. In fact, at some point, the reality of what was about to happen became too much for Him that he appealed to the Father:
Luke 22:42 (NKJV)
Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but yours, be done.
Commitment
Let nobody ever lie to you, dear reader. There is no love without commitment. If you truly love someone or even something, you must be willing to show commitment to it. When it comes to loving God, how committed are you to Him? ‘Cause saying you love Him is cool and all, but are you committed? To Him? To His kingdom?
Passion
1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
This verse does not talk about those who serve God. It does not even talk about those who worship but those who love God! Now this is some strong passion here. God loved the world so much that He gave His only son. God is also so passionate about those who love Him, that He has prepared things that no eye has seen, and no ear has heard for them. God’s love is an all-consuming fire. He is so passionate about His people that there is no better way to describe this kind of love.
So when God tells us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. He is not expecting a half-hearted kind of love from us. Neither is he pleased with lip service while our hearts are far from Him. This all-consuming, passionate love is the kind of love He has in mind. Now if you look at it from a physical point of view, it may seem impossible. But nothing is impossible with our God. By His Spirit, it becomes possible to enter into a covenant of love with Him.
Do you know it is possible to think you love someone but you actually don’t? Jeremiah talks of the heart as desperately wicked above all things. Have you ever seen two people dating for a while but when it comes to making the marriage covenant, one of them chickens out because it finally dawns on them that they do not love their partner as they ought to? Or as they thought they did? Kudos to the desperately wicked heart!
But thanks to God we do not have to love Him as He is just by ourselves. The Holy Spirit helps us to love Him. The same Spirit of God will help us to love His people as He loves us.
Romans 5:5 KJV
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
God has loved you with an everlasting love. He is so passionate about you. The question is not whether He loves you. The question is, are you willing, with the help of the Spirit, to reciprocate this love?
Make this prayer with me:
“Everlasting Father, thank you so much for your unconditional, sacrificial, and passionate love for me. Lord, help me to love you genuinely. Help me to love you with everything that I have. Spirit of God shed the love of God abroad in my heart. I choose to love you today. Baptize me today in a new zeal for you. Let the love of the Father be stirred up in my heart. Let me not be lukewarm. Let me not become cold towards you. Let me burn for you. Let me love you, dear Lord.”
In the name of Jesus name, we pray
Amen.