TSP DAILY DEVOTIONAL
PERFECT LOVE
16th February 2020
Dr. Phil Ransom-Bello
KEY SCRIPTURE/MEMORY VERSE:I John 4:12 (NKJV)
“No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”
Love is an evidence of God’s existence. Love is of God, therefore where there is love, there is God and where there is God, there is love. This then means that there can be no love without God for God is the origin of love.
The primary way we can represent God to our world is by loving them. Not loving them by ourselves in our own way but loving them with the love of God in Christ. Loving your neighbour goes beyond the mere expression of the popularly known 5 love languages – gifts, service, quality time and so on. It is loving them as Christ loved us. Christ did not just do things for us, He gave Himself to us. The giving of Himself means love because He is the love of God personified.
However, loving our neighbour as Christ loves us does not mean dying for our neighbour as Christ died for us – it means dying to ourselves to allow the love of Christ flow through us.
In our text, John says that on one has seen God at anytime. Which means that the only way people are going to see God is by experiencing the love of God in Christ, not our love. That is why John also says in John 1:18, that Christ has declared God.
“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
John 1:18 NKJV
Seeing Christ is seeing God, because Christ is the fullness of the love of God. Also observe Ephesians 3:19 that says knowing the love of Christ is the path to being filled with the fullness of God.
‘to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’
So if i’m going to truly love my neighbour, it has to be by the love of Christ. It has to be by me dying to self and allowing the Christ live through me. In that way as John puts it “love has been perfected in us”.
REFLECTION
What areas of my life do i need to die to Christ?
DECLARATION
-I am loved by God.
-I have received the capacity to love.
-By my loving, I carry proof of the presence of God.
-Daily, I die to self and I express Christ.
-I don’t love by myself but by Christ.
-Today, testimonies abound for me because the Gospel works.
HEARING BY THE WORD
(Recommended Listening)
Listen to LOVE ~ The Series 5 >> Dr. Phil by The StandPoint Church on #SoundCloud
