LOVE Part 1

LOVE Part 1
Dr Wole Gbogboade

The word love is very vital to our faith in Christ and our walk with the Lord. Love needs to be understood from the kingdom view point because what a lot of people call love or know love is tends to be the exact opposite of love. Even, expressions of love to God sometimes exhibit ignorance of the meaning of the word love. Many Christians still carry their notion of love as they understand it in the world into the kingdom which often times brings confusion.

TYPE OF LOVE

There are four types of love:
Eros: Love by natural feeling or by sensual feeling in the body. Love by sight. I John 2: 15-17. Such love is still in the realm of the soul.
Philio: This is brotherly love. It is still in the realm of the soul.
Storge: It is the Love of a thing. Some people have affinity for jewelry such as gold, silver, beyond natural affection. For some, it is clothe, food or drink. It can even be for car, house, horse e.t.c. When it becomes a craving for anything other than God, its lust, covetousness, which is idolatry or witchcraft. Col. 3:5
Agape: This is God’s kind of love. It is expressed by the Spirit of God in a Believer to show sacrificial love to others. Agape enables you to love your enemies and pray for them too.
2. To still serve heartily even when you are being persecuted.
3. To love those who revile you and mistreat you.
4. It makes you to forgive though you are right and the other party is wrong
5. To still love the one who hates or cheats you. This kind of love comes by the enabling grace of God through power of the Holy Spirit. It makes you see God in people when all the enemy wants you to see about them is negative.

Agape love develops in us as we live the word of God and constrain ourselves to do what God says as opposed to what the enemy is showing us. The love of God made Jesus to lay down His life according to God’s will even when His flesh wanted the cup to pass over Him.

Greater Love has no man than a man would lay down His life for his friend. John 15:13. The righteous died for the unrighteous so that the later might become the righteousness of God in Christ. II Cor. 5:21. And, the rich became poor so that the poor might become rich through His poverty II Cor. 8:9.
God Himself is love and the Father showed Agape love by sending his only son to come and save us and die for our sins so, we can live for Him, John 3:16 – 18 to avoid self-condemnation and eternal death.

Praying positively for your enemy is a clear indication of agape love manifesting in your live. Many Christians these days rain curses on their perceived, real or imaginary enemy contrary to the command of our Lord. It shows of love rather than Grace. Under grace our common enemy is the devil and his demons. Christians are empowered by the Word and the Spirit to cast out demons as they bind the devil in Jesus name. Deliverance is the language of grace instead of death for the enemy because God wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim. 2:4. Some even command demonic spirits to fall down and die. This is an amazing development in the Church these days. The truth is that spirits don’t die. You can only cast them out. That’s what Jesus did and taught His Disciples to do.

Finally, to wish or pray that anyone should die sounds judgmental. The bible says that judgment is the Lord’s exclusive reserve. Matt. 7:1-5. Every speck you see in someone else’s eyes should remind you of the log in your own eyes. This is humbling and will makes us speak the truth in love as well as watch over our own souls the more. Let’s love your enemy and allow God to judge. Rom. 12: 16-19.

The problem we are confronted with in the church today is not demons but, lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6. If Joseph had prayed for his brothers’ death for attempting to kill but, finally selling him into slavery, how will they bow to him to fulfill his dream and prophecy?

Let us walk in love. When we walk in love and in obedience to God’s command, we’ll be loved the more by Him. This also enables us to walk by the Spirit and avoid the deeds of the flesh. Love naturally enables us to live a forgiving life thereby receiving the Lord’s forgiveness for our shortcomings. Love therefore empowers us to love God and our neighbour thereby fulfilling the law. It also positions us for God’s divine favour, and favour with men.