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Eric Aboadwe
August 29, 2017 ·

THE EFFECTS OF GOD’S LOVE IN YOU

Our reading of the Word continues in 1st Corinthians 13 which says:

“LOVE suffers long and is kind; LOVE does not envy; LOVE does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, think no evil; does not rejoice in INIQUITY, but rejoices in the TRUTH; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6)

We thank God and praise Him with all our heart. We glorify Him forever more because great is His MERCY towards us, and therefore He has “delivered” our “soul” from the depths of Sheol (Psalm 86:12-14). And even though our canal thoughts cannot understand His ways and thoughts which are “higher” than ours as revealed in His Word (Isaiah 55:8-9), He has REVIVED our “soul” and “spirit” to comprehend His Word of JESUS CHRIST.

Actually wanted us to end our study on 1 Corinthians 13 the previous day and begin a new topic that is not related to the subject of God’ “LOVE” but on a different subject. However I realized that we need to continue our studies from where we left because the subsequent verses from verse 4-6 is what makes many Christians CONFUSED. The verse 4-6 is what makes many believers think that the “LOVE” that Paul preached from verse 1-3 is human “LOVE.”

However we need to understand that when the Scripture says “LOVE suffers long and is kind; LOVE does not envy; LOVE does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, think no evil,” it is talking about the EFFECTS of God’s “LOVE” in us. This passage tells us that after God poured His “LOVE” in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5), it works in us.

Therefore Paul was saying that if God’s “LOVE” which saved us forever from SIN through JESUS is working in us, it makes us “suffer long,” and it makes us become “kind” to our fellow Brethren and to SINNERS by giving them the gospel of the “REMISSION of SINS” which was fulfilled by the water and the blood of CHRIST.

Paul went ahead to tell us that this “LOVE of God” which works in us does not make us “envious” of other people. He also said that it does not make us “parade” ourselves. In other words God’s “LOVE” does not make us live in opulence to make a show in the FLESH to others for recognition, but it makes us live in “the SIMPLICITY that is in CHRIST.”

The Apostle Paul continued his sermon on God’s “LOVE” by telling us that when His “LOVE” is working in us, it does not make us “behave rudely,” and it does not make us become “selfish” (seeking our own alone). He said that the EFFECTIVE POWER of God’s “LOVE” makes us not to get “provoked,” and it makes us not to think “evil” about matters.

We have to understand the fact that everything about the subject of “LOVE” which Paul spoke about in 1 Corinthians 13 was about “the LOVE of God” revealed to us through JESUS CHRIST by His gift of the “REMISSION of SINS.” However because many Christian and Bible readers do not understand this, they have taken everything which Paul was saying as something which they must PRODUCE by themselves through their own “deeds of the FLESH.”

This misunderstand is what makes many Christians to get CONFUSED and they think that when Paul says these things, he telling us to return back to “the WORKS of the LAW.” This is because the “LAW” of Moses also tells us to do “good,” to be “kind,” and not to do “evil.” For this reason, the Apostle Peter said that the writings and teachings of Paul are “hard to understand, which UNTAUGHT and UNSTABLE people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

Paul and all the other Apostles and the disciples of JESUS never contradicted themselves as some people think. Many pastors, teachers, evangelists, and prophets have not been CALLED to do the work of God. This is because they are not even “born again” of His “water and the Spirit” in the first place as JESUS told us in John 3:4-5. As a result, they teach thousands of their followers things that they themselves do not understand. Because of this, many Christians do not still understand “the GRACE of our Lord JESUS CHRIST” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Everything that Paul spoke about in our Scripture reading has nothing to do with the “works of the LAW.” This is because the same Paul told us that, “Therefore by the deeds of the LAW no FLESH will be justified in His sight, for by the LAW is the knowledge of SIN” (Romans 3:20).

Therefore when Paul talks about the “works” of God’s “LOVE” in us, people must not misinterpret his writings to think that he is talking about the “works” the “LAW.” There is a vast difference between “the works of the LAW” and “the works of God’s LOVE.” And so in our Scripture reading, Paul was talking about the “works” of God’s “LOVE” in us.

I want us to go back to our Scripture reading and complete what Paul was saying about the characteristics and the effects of God’s “LOVE” in us. He added that God’s “LOVE” does not make us “rejoice in INIQUITY,” but rather it makes us “rejoice in the TRUTH.” What does this mean?

It means that even though the FLESH of the born again Saints commits “INIQUITY” from time to time because of its weakness and imperfection, they don’t “rejoice” in that, but rather they “rejoice” in the fact that JESUS CHRIST was baptized and He took away all their SINS once and for all, and He died to shed His blood to pay for their SINS, and He resurrected to “justify” them once and for all. This is the “TRUTH” which makes the born again Saints “rejoice.”

If our reading says, “Does not rejoice in INIQUITY, but rejoices in the TRUTH,” the question that we must ask ourselves is “What is the TRUTH?” We all know that the “TRUTH” is JESUS CHRIST. Therefore let us not forget the words of our LORD when He said, “And you shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Therefore when Paul says LOVE “Does not rejoice in INIQUITY, but rejoices in the TRUTH,” he was saying that even thought the FLESH of the born again Saints is WEAK and it commits “INIQUITY,” they do not “rejoice” in that, but they “rejoice” in the “LOVE” of the “TRUTH” concerning the salvation of JESUS CHRIST which has set them forever “free” from SIN through the water, the blood, and the resurrection of JESUS the mighty Saviour.

Paul also added that the “LOVE” of God makes us “bear all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

We are BLESSED my Brethren!