TSP DAILY DEVOTIONAL
HOW IS YOUR LOVE EXPRESSED?
8th June 2020
Dr. Phil Ransom-Bello
KEY SCRIPTURE/MEMORY VERSE: Colossians 1:3-4(NKJV)
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;
Looking at our text, besides their persevering faith, Paul also gave thanks for their love. He commended the fact that the gospel was also bearing the fruit of love in their lives.
Now, did you notice that Paul didn’t say “love for some saints”?
Maybe if scripture recorded it that way, it would mean that your love expression should be within the confine of your small circle of friends alone. But is that what scripture said?
I need this to sink in.
Because there are some believers who love only a particular set of people. That’s not the marker of genuine faith or what the gospel produces. If the gospel is the good news of the demonstration of God’s love for the whole world, then how can recipients of the gospel love differently?
Paul told the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 13 that if he has all faith, can speak with the tongue of angels, prophesy or move and shake mountains but doesn’t have love, he is nothing.
He was clear on how important this is, that your service is nothing without love.
Friends, one of the fruits of the gospel is that it would produce in you, love for ALL saints.
Not 5, 6, 20 or 300 saints alone.
ALL SAINTS.
Saints that you know and saints that you don’t know inclusive.
The love you express as a believer is not just for the believers in Nigeria or the ones in the North or the ones in your local assembly.
It is for every believer in Christ.
In John 13:34-35, look at Jesus’s command to His disciples;
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
Do you see that? Jesus was told His disciples that their love would be the marker of a true follower. That loving like Him would be what identifies anyone who believes in Jesus. And how did Jesus love? He loved the whole world. If Jesus loved the world the way many of us express our love with conditions and bias, do you think we would have been able to receive the gospel and all the realities that His death provided?
No.
Look, dear believer, our expression of love cannot be defined by the world.
How should we love?
Unconditionally.
Our love should mirror oneness, it should be unifying regardless of denominations or relationship or any other differences.
This is the spirit of the gospel.
REFLECTION
Is the love I express conditioned or is it an expression of the fruit of the gospel?
DECLARATION
-I believe in the gospel, therefore the seed of the gospel produces fruit in my life.
-I not only believe the gospel, I live the gospel.
-The gospel produces the fruit of love in me. I have love for all the saints.
-I am not influenced by bias, conditions or the world’s way of loving. The love I express is the fruit that the gospel bears in me.
-The revelation of God’s love that I have received in Christ generates within me the capacity to love like Him.
-As the gospel produces enduring faith and love for all saints through me, God is glorified and the gospel is testified of.
Hallelujah!
HEARING BY THE WORD
(Recommended Listening)
Listen to Fruits of the Gospel 2 >> Dr. Phil by The StandPoint Church on #SoundCloud
