Love God. Love Others. Love the Lost.

Over the next couple of weeks we're going to be diving into the Fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control. It's important we live & show these fruits because the world will know we are Christians by the fruit we produce. And if we do not produce fruit, the Bible tells us we will be cut off & thrown into the fire. So we have to produce fruit. We have to live by the Spirit & produce the life we are called to show the world.

The first is love. Love is the foundation for all we do as Christians. And love is basically a call to do three things: Love God. Love others. Love the lost.

LOVE GOD
Jesus summed up the law in Mark 12 by stating "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." We are called to love God with EVERYTHING we have. Everything inside of us. Love God.

How? Obedience. Jesus tells us in John 14 "if you love me, you will obey what I command." We show God we love Him by obeying Him. By doing what the Bible says. And if we deliberately disobey Him, don't follow His commands, intentionally live a lifestyle of sin - then clearly we don't love Him. We either show God we love Him or hate Him by the way we live. Love God. Obey God.

LOVE OTHERS
Jesus added on to the command in Mark 12 by stating the "second is this: love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these." After we discover a love for God by obeying Him, we show God we love Him by obeying the call to love others. To love ALL people. It's impossible to love God & not love others. And it's equally impossible to love others & not love God. They go hand-in-hand. Love comes from God, and God is love.

And it's because "God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John is full of the command to love others because God first loved us & John also informs us that if we hate our brother, we don't love God. Again, it's IMPOSSIBLE to love God & not love others. In order to love God, we have to love EVERYONE.

LOVE THE LOST
And because we love God, we in turn love others. And when we love God, obey God & love others, then we share God's love. And when we share in the same love of God, then we also share the same love for the world. The same love for the lost & hopeless. Share this love for the lost "because God so loved the world" in John 3:16.

Just as God demonstrated His love for us, so we too must demonstrate our love to the world. Love God. Love Others. Love the Lost.

JV