For the first twenty years of my life, I did not know that God loved me. But when I was taught God’s rightly divided Word, accepted Jesus Christ as lord, and believed that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9,10), something miraculous happened. God so loved me that, at the moment I believed, He gave me the most magnificent gift—His gift of holy spirit, God in Christ in me!
I began to learn more about that gift, from God’s Word, and believed to manifest it in my life. So many positive changes took place! It was true—God loved me, and I could love others with His love. I treasure that perfect gift and all of the potential it holds, especially the opportunity it gives us to love one another with God’s love. When we are born again of God’s spirit, we have the ability and privilege to love one another with God’s love as we renew our minds to His Word and walk in love as Christ loved.
God’s gift of holy spirit in us gives us the ability to love one another with God’s love.
I John 3:23:
And this is his [God’s] commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he [God in Christ Jesus] gave us commandment.
There are two commandments in this verse: to believe on the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another. How significant that these two commandments appear in the same God-breathed verse. The first commandment here, to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, brings the greatest deliverance to the life of an individual—the new birth. The second commandment here, to love one another, also has the potential to change lives in a very big way.
I John 4:16:
And we have known and believed the love [agapē] that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
When a person becomes born again of God’s spirit, God dwells in that person. When that person dwells in God, he is walking in fellowship with God, renewing his mind to God’s Word, and therefore he can love with God’s love.
In the King James Version of I Corinthians 13, agapē is translated as “charity.” In the believer’s life this is “the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation.” I Corinthians 13 lists some wonderful attributes of the agapē love of God: it is kind, it is long-suffering, it envies not, and it thinks no evil. The love of God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. The love of God never fails. What a privilege God has given us to love one another as He loves us!
We can love as God loves when we renew our minds to God’s Word and walk as Christ did.
Ephesians 5:1,2:
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Look at Christ’s loving obedience to God—he loved so much that he gave his life for us! Jesus Christ walked in love, setting the example for us to follow. Now you and I can live life, obey what the Word tells us, and walk in love toward one another. We are the Body of Christ, and our hearts can be knit together in love as written in Colossians 2:2. And when we obey God’s command to love one another, the doors of opportunity for rich and satisfying fellowship swing wide open.
The believers in my first fellowship loved me in a way I had never experienced before. Their genuine care and concern and the truth of the Word they shared with me changed my life. I soon learned that when we renew our minds and walk according to God’s Word, we can love one another with God’s love.
Once we are born again, we can love one another with the love God gave to us in His gift of holy spirit. We renew our minds to God’s Word and follow our example, Jesus Christ, and walk in love as Christ loved. We can live life to the fullest, with hearts knit together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And like the believers who loved me and taught me God’s Word, we can bring others into the fellowship and into our lives. What a joy it is to love one another with God’s love!