Wednesday Bible Study: The add-tos, finale

 

2Pe 1:7  ... and brotherly affection with love. 

So tell us, Peter, what is love?  All he adds to this is:

2Pe 1:8  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

2Pe 1:9  For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 

2Pe 1:10  Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 

That is the true finale of the series: if you grow these qualities, you will be fruitful- you will remember from where you were and where you now are; and practice, if I may, makes perfect.

But what is love?  John gives us a great definition:

1Jn 4:10  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

1Jn 4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

It doesn't start with us; it started with God.  He loved us first.  And we, having received this gift being who we are, should be willing to pass that love onto others who are as we were.

But what is love?  Paul tells us several things it is not:  (From 1 Corinthians 13)

It is not great flowing words.

It is not miraculous powers.

It is not great deeds.

It is not great sacrifice, or even martyrdom.

In other words, it is not self-glorification.  It is not action, though it does CAUSE it.

It is the WHY of what we do, the motivation.

Paul goes on to list what it manifests in us as: Patience and kindness, self-control, faithful, virtuous, Godly, and intelligent.  Sound familiar?  Here, see what I mean:

1Co 13:4  Love is patient  (Steadfastness) and kind (Brotherly kindness); love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 

1Co 13:5  or rude (Self-control). It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful(Virtuous); 

1Co 13:6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth (Godliness). 

1Co 13:7  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (Faith). 

1Co 13:8  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away (Knowledge). 

Love is the sum of all the rest; and the source of all the rest.  In a way, Peter might have put love first: "Add to your love..."  

I keep thinking of a recent song in which the singer kept asking, "Why am I so damn unlovable?"  The thing is, it starts with God.  The Father sent the Son to die for us and MAKE us lovable; He gave a love we cannot match to make us lovable.  Having been given that, John says, we should give it back to others.

Does this mean we have to love everyone?  Jesus answered that in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Even those who hate us? He answered that one too.  Was there anyone Jesus didn't love? There were two categories He didn't show unconditional love to: the demons He cast out, and the Pharisees, whose hearts were cold and manipulated the Word to their own benefit.  So we can hate these, too?  Well, maybe the demons; but remember this:

Jud 1:9  But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 

We love.  Jesus judges.