The Loyalty of Love
Dearly beloved of God, we have so much to be thankful for and rejoice about.
Where would we be without the love of God and His great grace toward us in Christ? Nowhere. In Christ we are dearly beloved and highly favored in the Father’s sight. Christ made it possible for us to be born again of the spirit from God and be the children of God.
What do we have that we did not receive? Nothing. The Father freely gives us all things with His beloved Son. Everything we have is in Christ, by his work, and by God’s grace to us. None of it is by our works, or by our worth.
What hope would we have had He not provided us good hope through grace? He called us to obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together up to meet him in the air we would be hopeless.
Dearly beloved, our hearts should be full of thankfulness and joy for all we’ve been given. We should respond to God’s loyalty of love toward us in Christ by our loyalty of love to Him, loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and by loving one another as Christ loved us.
If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing as he ought to know it. Knowledge puffs up, but the love of God edifies.
Beloved, we ought to walk in the love of God toward one another, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God forgave us in Christ. We should be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.
Everything we have from God is by His grace toward us in Christ; not a one of us deserved any of it. We need to remember that the kingdom of God is in God’s justice, and peace, and joy in the holy spirit.
When we serve Christ in this manner we are well pleasing to our Father and approved before men. We ought to pursue the things which make peace, and which edify one another. We ought to be of the same mind one toward another and be humble, not arrogant.
We who are able ought to bear the weaknesses of those who are unable and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please our neighbor for his good with a view to his edification, for not even Christ pleased himself, but as it is written, “The insults of those who insulted You [God] fell upon me [Christ].”
Beloved, let us think the same of one another according to the standard, Christ Jesus, so that with unity of purpose and one mouth we may bring glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to accept one another even as the Christ also accepted us for the glory of God.
We should have the loyalty of love to one another in the body of Christ. The only reason any of us enjoy the privileged membership in this body is because of God’s love toward us in Christ. None of us deserved it; it was freely given to us in Christ. Let us walk worthy of it, dearly beloved.
There are not many spiritual bodies; there is only one; the body of Christ. As members of this body let us conduct ourselves as the Lord would have us behave. Let us serve one another in love, and have the same care for one another.
It is a high calling; let’s strive to walk worthily with regard to the calling to which we were called, and walk with humility and meekness, with longsuffering upholding one another in love, putting forth a diligent effort to guard the unity from the spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
This is our Father’s Will concerning us, dearly beloved. Let’s do those things that please Him out of the loyalty of love.