Imperishable Inheritance

Isn’t it amaz­ing how we can so eas­ily miss crit­i­cal lessons in the Scrip­tures? As I’ve been think­ing about the impor­tance of Chris­t­ian love I never imag­ined how incred­i­bly pro­nounced it is. I mean, I knew it was there, but only recently is it really hit­ting me. And the love we are com­manded to have joy in is not just towards God but our fel­low brethren and those out­side of the faith. The ethic of love should seem­ingly per­me­ate every facet of our Chris­t­ian life! Amazing.

Here is but a small sam­pling of pas­sages from the NT that speak to this issue.

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax col­lec­tors do the same? If you greet only your broth­ers, what more are you doing than oth­ers? Do not even the Gen­tiles do the same?” (Mat 5:46–47)

“‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and fore­most com­mand­ment. The sec­ond is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two com­mand­ments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Mat 22:37–40)

“A new com­mand­ment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My dis­ci­ples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34–35)

“O right­eous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25–26)

“Let love be with­out hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in broth­erly love; give pref­er­ence to one another in honor;” (Rom 12:9–10)

“For you were called to free­dom, brethren; only do not turn your free­dom into an oppor­tu­nity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Gal 5:13)

“There­fore I, the pris­oner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a man­ner wor­thy of the call­ing with which you have been called, with all humil­ity and gen­tle­ness, with patience, show­ing tol­er­ance for one another in love, being dili­gent to pre­serve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:1–3)

“Now may our God and Father Him­self and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all peo­ple, just as we also do for you; so that He may estab­lish your hearts with­out blame in holi­ness before our God and Father at the com­ing of our Lord Jesus with all His saints…Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for any­one to write to you, for you your­selves are taught by God to love one another” (1 Thess 3:11–13, 4:9)

“Let us hold fast the con­fes­sion of our hope with­out waver­ing, for He who promised is faith­ful; and let us con­sider how to stim­u­late one another to love and good deeds, not for­sak­ing our own assem­bling together, as is the habit of some, but encour­ag­ing one another; and all the more as you see the day draw­ing near.” (Heb 10:23–25)

“Since you have in obe­di­ence to the truth puri­fied your souls for a sin­cere love of the brethren, fer­vently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is per­ish­able but imper­ish­able, that is, through the liv­ing and endur­ing word of God.” (1 Pet 1:22–23)

“For this is the mes­sage which you have heard from the begin­ning, that we should love one another;” (1 John 3:11)

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and every­one who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7–8)