“Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.” Colossians 1:8
Love is one of the most important attributes Christians
receives from God. Every believer in Jesus Christ receives spiritual gifts from
God, spiritual gifts are gifts given by the Holy Spirit after salvation. Paul
wrote about these spiritual gifts, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (23) Meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22 – 23 The reason
there is “against such there is no law” is because any attribute God
gives no law can condemn it. These attributes are not of nature or man's free
will, they are of God, given by the Holy Spirit after the Holy Spirit quickens
our dead spirits and causes us to believe in Jesus Christ. The first of these gracious
gifts is “love” because love is the beginnings of all things. God must have had
love before election because mercy and grace are both an act of God’s eternal
love, without love there is none. John wrote, “We love him, because he first
loved us.” 1 John 4:19 God must have loved us first because His love,
mercy, and grace all existed before the foundation of the world. God had
already elected us as His children and given us to Jesus His Son, “But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,” Ephesians
2:4 God is merciful to us because of His great love to us, not because of our
love for Him, not because we chose Him, but because He loved us and by mercy
and grace elected us as His own. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1
John 4:10 Meaning, in this great gift is the highest expression of love, even
though we hated God, He loved us and sent His Own Son to redeem us from the sin
and hate in our hearts toward Him. Stop, and meditate on that for a moment!
Now read this, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us; (15) Having abolished in his
flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to
make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;” Ephesians 2:14 – 15
Jesus Christ brought together sinful men and the Holy God by breaking, “down
the middle wall of partition between us;” That is us folks, sinful, hateful
lost souls, and the Holiest of Holy, what an amazing love God has for us. “In
this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9
When Paul wrote “…declared unto us your love in the
Spirit.” God was telling us about His love being gifted to us by the Holy
Spirit. Now that we have a living spirit (because of our salvation) God has
given us all a measure of His love just as He has given us all a measure of
everything spiritual. God gave us a measure of faith, “For I say, through
the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as
God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Romans 12:3 By measure
God means - limited portion – as God has given to every soul that He has saved,
everything to every believer is a gift from God. Some say that “God has
given to us all the same amount of grace, and what we do with that grace is up
to us” but this is not true. Paul wrote these words, “But unto every one
of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Ephesians
4:7 Again the word “measure” means limited portion, or as God has elected for
us to have it. As Christians we can never go beyond the limits or bounds that
God has set for us. “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his
months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;” Job
14:5 Every Believer has limits of our spiritual gifts, therefore Paul said “But
by the grace of God I am what I am:” 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul went as far
as God gave him his measure of grace, and Paul recognized this toward the end
of his ministry. But Paul fought hard, he stretched his measure of grace to its
limits because God was so gracious to him, “…and his grace which was
bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more
abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” As Christians we need to stretch God’s
gifts as far as we can, so that we can also say “…his grace which was
bestowed upon me was not in vain;”. Paul was writing to this church in Colosse, he was speaking
highly of their love in the spirit, because their spirits were full of love. How
is your love believer, when other believers see your love do they recognize how
loving you are? Pastors, how is your love, are we remembering to preach as God commanded?
“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ:” Ephesians 4:15 We (as Pastors, ministers,
and teachers) must remember we are feeding God’s sheep; God will be our Judge.
Church member, how is your love toward your Pastor? Are you loving and caring
for your Pastor, are you loving and caring for each other? Do people see your
loving spirit that God has given to us all? Jesus said, “A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. (35) By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
John 13:34 Folks, Life is short on this earth, one day we will all stand
before Jesus Christ in our judgment, while our sins are forgiven, our love for
one another will be one of our points of judgment. How will you be judged, do
other believers see you as a loving soul? A good believer will be like Paul, “…but
I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which
was with me.” How is your labor in love, are you stretching it to it’s
limits?
