Love – The Most Excellent Way
February 10, 2024 | 6:47 am
Can you believe that it’s February 2024 already?! February is known as the month of love. The world has defined love in many ways. This year being no exception, many will celebrate it by spending lavishly on the ones they love. The month is associated with red roses and chocolate. I like chocolate but I would like to share something the Lord placed in my heart on love especially with regards to ministry.
1 Corinthians 13 is known as the chapter of love. Whenever we want to define love we make reference to it. I also discovered that it also describes the excellent way to do Ministry. Love is defined as a deep attachment and affection for someone or something. It involves two entities-the lover and the loved.
God’s desire is that our service and ministry be encompassed in these two command
s: Love God and Love people. Christ having come to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17), confirmed it and lived His life on earth in full portrayal of what this meant. I’ll delve into a couple of pointers that I wrote down:
1. Love lasts forever and binds everything in perfect harmony. Ministries that last must be founded on love,
1 Corinthians 13:1 (NLT) Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Colossians 3:14 (ESV) And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
2. Without love in ministry, we are nothing and our efforts amount to nothing. We become God-like when we love and then we can give as He gave. He gave His only son for us (John 3:16).
1 Corinthians 13-3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
3. When we do ministry in love, it never fails. Isn’t that just amazing? If you want not to fail in ministry, then you must do it in love.
1 Corinthians 13:8 (NASB) Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
4. When we do not act in love, we are following childish ways- we talk, think and reason like children. Childish ways toss us back and forth but as we mature in love, we grow in Christ. The secret to Christian maturity is bound in our growth in the ability to love.
Ephesians 4:14-15 (ESV) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
Love grows and enables us to grow in knowledge and depth of insight. The more we grow in love, the more we discern what is best and are pure and blameless before the Lord.
Phillippians 1:9-10 (NASB) And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
5. Love is a lifestyle. We must live a life of love. We set an example in our speech, life, faith and purity. It is a heart matter, an attitude. It cannot only apply to certain people in certain circumstances. It must apply to all. Many times, the gospels record the compassion that Christ had over the people. It is this love and compassion that drove Him to heal, save and deliver them. Christ already set us an example to follow. Will you follow Christ?
Ephesians 5:2(NLT) Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ…
6. Love is the way of the Spirit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is expressed in divine love. If we want the Spirit of God to walk with and work through us, then we must walk and be compelled by love.
Galatians 5:22-23(TPT) ”But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit.“
7. Only Christ can help us to do Ministry in love. Ephesians 3:17-19 encourages us to ask the Lord to root and establish us in love. It is not ministry, if it is not in love.
Ministry and service is all about people. We love God’s people and lay our lives for them for there is no greater love than this (John 15:13). Christ came to enforce the command of love: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5) and love His people as we love ourselves (Leviticus 19:18).
Here at HSDPM, we believe in the way of love because love is the most excellent way to do ministry!
1 Corinthians 4-8 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
You will find the full live sermon on YouTube @ Holy Spirit Dwelling Place Ministry