JESUS sought deep commitments with different people on different levels. There was not much He could achieve by platonic relationships. So he continuously went out of His ways to speak with and interact with complete strangers in anticipation of mutually beneficial engagements that would improve earthly climates. But, just as it is today, there are not too many people who are willing enough to share deeper intimacy with others. Many are only into relationship exclusively for what they seek to extract and gain from another or others. Just like is done to an orange, many just want to squeeze out juice from others and thrash the skin remains. Many took from JESUS without caring to connect better with Him.
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” John 15:9 (KJV)
Again, JESUS tried to raise folks who would emulate His principles and sense of commitment to others. He desired and desires to see a world where believers in Him seek not only to make others be more committed to His lifestyle, He sought also to have the world become a more LOVING life. Seeking deeper levels of commitment from unwillingly people can be excruciatingly painful, yet it is nonetheless God’s expectation and Heart desire. Many who commit to spread Christ-like LOVE would encounter those who would squeeze life-juice out of them, like the world did to JESUS. But, just like JESUS, they would have left a more lasting impression and legacy by having engaged sacrificial and noble ministry ACTS. Everybody cannot hope somebody will do God’s kind of LOVE while nobody does it, when anybody could do it.
“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:12-14 (KJV)
You and I can make up our minds to be God’s special love agents who put more LOVE in life by putting more LIFE in LOVE!
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev 3:19-21 (KJV)
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:9-14 (KJV)
“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.” 1 John 3:14-19 (KJV)
Below Is An Excerpt From the Book – A 31-Day Guide On Longer Lasting LOVE By Olanrewaju Elujoba
Day 3 – I Can Expand My View Of Love
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL-LEVELS LOVE
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eph 3:14-19 (KJV)
EVERYBODY HAS LIMITED-VIEW OF LOVE!
Limited view is a confined mode of looking at things in a narrow manner of apprehension and from a restricted window of conception. It can be a selfish opinion or circumscribed judgment of what is “truly” seen. It is like everybody’s views of nature! One can only see just as far as possible from one’s own limited standpoints while another or others could be seeing the same horizon differently and from a totally different standpoint altogether. We may be in similar geographic location and yet see the same nature-sphere differently.
If Real LOVE was as popular as it is generally defined, then the whole world would have been a BETTER LOVING place where one could turn anywhere and EASILY find IT.
TRUE LOVE is more than any singular point of VIEW! It takes HUMILITY to expand one’s SCOPE of LOVE!!! There is more to love than any single person or individual could imagine or define it to be. People have limited, myopic, gender-biased, racial and cultural perspectives of LOVE!
Everyone assumes that they already know all that needs to be known about LOVE. Many place demands on others on how they want to be treated in love. There are many unnecessary conflicts in relationships because of selfish views and limited definition of LOVE.
In Christ JESUS, dimensions of LOVE stretch ways beyond our comfortable limits. It is important that everyone seeks to be taught and empowered for true Godly LOVE.
PRAYERS
Father Lord, I ask that Christ may dwell more in my heart by faith. I pray that I am more rooted and grounded in true love. I ask that the Holy Spirit will guide me daily as I desire to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and heights of God’s kind of LOVE. I pray that I be inspired daily, to live daily, in deeper knowledge of the love of Christ, which is beyond mental and intellectual knowledge. I ask that I should be filled with all the fullness of God’s nature of LOVE. In JESUS name, I prayed.