Ephesians 4:15-16 – “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”  NASB

“God is Love!”  I suggest that God is not controlled by love; HE Is LOVE!  He does not have love; HE is LOVE and loves by choice.  He does not set his love on demons, but He chose to love us while we were still firmly entrenched in the camp of the enemy of God. 

His Love seeks our highest and best good.  He works in us to bring us to completeness in Him and total fulfillment.  He is working to bring us to our purpose and destiny and enable us to achieve our greatest potential in life.  He has been committed to that purpose even if it kills Him.  (The Cross).  God does not have casual affairs; He never lives with someone; He marries for eternity!  That is God’s Love!

What is man’s highest or best good?  What is man’s highest potential?  What are we when we are in that position and condition?  We are manifesting His life and being what He created us to be.  What is that?  A receptacle for His incredible Agape Love.  We are to live in the complete consciousness of that Love and express that love to the world.  That is what we are at our highest potential. 

One definition of sin could be “failing to fulfill that potential.”  Before you protest that sin is ‘missing the mark,’ is that not missing the mark of God’s purpose?  The Bible tells us that “…all have sinned and come short of the glory (LOVE) of God….”  A man has failed when he has cut himself off from that incredible Love!

Man did that in the Garden with Adam and Eve and has been doing it for centuries.  The Good News is that does not deter God. He keeps coming, loving, and calling us.  Nothing separates us from or causes Him to stop loving us. 

When we genuinely see the Love that is demonstrated at the Cross and comprehend that God Loves us so much that He gave His Son for us, then faith rises inside our being, and we cry, “Abba Father!”  We turn from rebellion, repent, and commit to obeying and following Him.  We are then transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of God’s Light and become cells in the Body of Christ.  We are then united and joined to every other cell in the Body in Love.

Paul, in Romans, declared regarding salvation, “The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts….”  In Thessalonians, he spoke to new converts and said, “You have been taught of God to Love one another….”  

That is the key characteristic of the Body of Christ – LOVE!  It is not your brand of Christianity that identifies you as a Christian. It is God’s Love shed abroad in your heart and the manifestation of that Love!  You will never be the same as any other believer or sect.  Just like we all have different fingerprints in the natural, we are all unique in the spiritual, but the one thing we all have is LOVE! 

Remember what Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, that you have Love, one for another….”  Some would argue, “Well, there is more to Christianity than just love.” True, but without that Love, there is nothing else!  That is the bedrock foundational principle of being In Christ!

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul powerfully addresses the importance and power of love.  He says that without it, we are nothing more than noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.  He goes even further and declares that without love, we are Nothing! 

In the New Testament, we learn that the first act upon entering the Family of God and the Body of Christ is to be Empowered by the Holy Spirit.  That indicates we are given the ability, strength, and energy to Be!   Have you ever considered that the number one concern of the Holy Spirit in producing the New Testament was the Empowering of the Body of Christ? 

The question must be, what are we empowered for if we are empowered?  I believe this is where the modern church has gotten off track a bit.  In my understanding, the purpose of this empowering is that we might Love or manifest Agape!  We have focused on ministry, building, numbers, gifts, etc., and failed to realize that those things are beginnings, not ends. Gifts do not function to perfection without Love! They become dangerous, noisy gongs clanging and drawing attention to themselves, not producing life.

I want to move at least one step further into this, so I will pause again and pick up next time as we consider the Power and Purpose of Love in the Body of Christ.  

God, bless you richly is my prayer and desire!