Aug 26, 2013
“Walking in Love”
by Rev. David Taylor
“And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.” (2 John 1:6, NASB)
God says, quite simply, that love is keeping His commandment. That brings love out of the indefinite into something explicit.
But God has done even more than define love for you. He’s given you instruction so you can know how to love as He loves. By giving you His Word, God has given you His “love manual” in black and white.
Love is an action
All you have to do is follow it, and you’ll be walking in love—the love of God has been born within you. Yet, unless you take action, that love will remain hidden within you.
That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi saying, “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.” (Philippians 1:9-10)
How love is released
The love of God is released in your life by acting on the knowledge of God’s Word. Without revelation knowledge followed by action, love lies undeveloped and selfishness continues to reign supreme in you, even though you are a new creature.
As you act on God’s Word, the love of God will be perfected in you. That’s when love will begin to flow from you to others. There is nothing–absolutely nothing–that is more important than learning to love. In fact, how accurately you perfect the love walk will determine how much of the perfect will of God you accomplish. That’s because every other spiritual force derives its action from love.
If there is no love…
In the beginning of the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, the Word says that tongues are just “noise” if there is no love. If a person has the gift of prophecy, understands all knowledge, and has enough faith to move mountains, without love he is nothing. If he gives all that he has to the poor and even sacrifices his life, without the love of God he gains nothing.
Decide now!
Without love, your giving will not work. Tongues and prophecy will not work. Faith fails and knowledge is unfruitful. All the truths that you have learned from God’s Word work by love. They will profit you little unless you live the love of God.
God has recreated our spirit in the image of love. And He has sent His loving Spirit to live in us and teach us how to love as He loves. We can live the “Love Life”!
Without a definite decision, you will not continue in the love of God. So commit yourself to agape—God’s love—now. And when temptation comes, you will remember this decision and obey love.
Once you’ve made the decision, the most powerful thing that you can do in perfecting the love walk is to continually confess that you are the love of God. Base your confession on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
This God-kind of love will begin to influence all that you say and do. If someone says something unkind to you, love will say, “That’s okay. I am not touchy, fretful or resentful. I take no account of that.” And you go free.
Walking in love is walking in the Spirit. It is walking as Jesus walked.
This cannot fail
Love never fails. Nothing works without it, and there can be no failure with it.
When you live by love, you cannot fail. It takes faith to believe that the “love way” will not fail. The natural mind cannot understand that because the natural man and his word are ruled by selfishness. He believes if you don’t look out for number one (himself), nobody else will. And, in a sense, he is right; nobody else can look out for him. His selfishness shuts the door to the love of God, and he winds upon his own.
But when you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf. He will allow no man to do you wrong (1 Chronicles 16:22). As long as you stay in love, God the Father seeks your own. He sees to it that love never fails. Walking in love is to your great advantage!
Agape love is a new kind of power. It makes you the master of every situation. As long you walk in love, you cannot be hurt and you cannot fail. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. No one even has the power to hurt your feelings because you are not ruled by feelings but by God’s love. You love as He loves.
