BS3D -LOVE IS WHAT CHARACTERIZES GOD'S KINGDOM
The first thing Jesus teaches us is about the Kingdom of God. It was always in the plan of God that He would be the ruling and guiding principle in our lives so that we could fulfill our purpose on earth and do it together with Him.
The second thing Jesus emphasized to us is that at the heart of God’s Kingdom is a loving father. God has no interest in being a heavy-handed dictator over us. In fact, God will never violate our free will because He isn’t interested in robots who HAVE to submit to Him.
And now, third, Jesus taught that unconditional love is what characterizes His kingdom. God doesn’t want servants. He wants friends. He wants sons and daughters. For you and me it’s not a question of our doing a lot of things. Rather it’s allowing God to be our loving father and then taking our place as his son or daughter.
When Jesus talked and spoke of love He was speaking of “agape” love. Agape was the Greek word for true, selfless, and unconditional love. It was a kind of love that Jesus introduced into the language. It did exist before Jesus, but until He came no one had really seen what it looked like.
Agape love starts back with God the Father. He loved all that had created --- especially men and women who were “the apple of His eye”. It grieved Him that Adam and Eve had sinned and that all men and women would be born in sin and therefore separated from Him. Therefore, God devised a plan whereby anyone who wanted could have a path back to Him and our relationship would be restored. What did this plan include?
John 3:16
Notice the words “he gave” or “he gave up”. The heart of agape love is all about giving up for others what we value the most. The love talked about today in our societies is all about getting so that we can have OUR needs met. It’s the exact opposite of what God wants.
God GAVE us Jesus so that we could physically SEE what agape love looked like. Christ’s love was to be our standard.
John 15:12
Once God GAVE Jesus to us, then Jesus took up the mantle of love and freely laid down his life for us.
John 13:1 / John 15:13
We might think that Jesus died for all those who loved Him and wanted to follow Him. But what is actually true?
Romans 5:8
It’s while we were “still sinners” -- at our worst and an enemy of God -- that Jesus died for us. Why would He do this?
Ephesians 2:4-5
Agape love wasn’t to end with Christ laying down his life for us. How was this love to continue?
1 John 3:16
Can you love your enemies? Can you do good to them, bless them, pray for them and even give to them if they ask for something? These are impossible for us to even consider and yet it’s what Jesus asks of us.
Luke 6:27-31
It gets even worse, as Jesus says we are to give and expect nothing back from our enemy. Why does He ask this of us? These verses give us three reasons.
Luke 6:35-36
If you’ve ever had a real enemy – someone out to defame you and destroy you – then you know how impossible this is. Maybe you’ve had a husband or wife cheat on you and life as you know it has changed forever. Maybe a colleague at work has lied about you and taken the promotion that should have gone to you. There are thousands of examples we could all share of how people have betrayed us, lied about us, and hurt us deeply. How can Jesus expect us to express agape love to a person like this?
The short answer is that He doesn’t. He knows that we can never do this on our own without His life within us. That’s another reason why our receiving the Spirit of Jesus (The Holy Spirit) is vital for every Christian. It’s not good enough to just be a forgiven sinner. To live our lives with God and for God we need the power of God within us to do these impossible things.
Long before it happened, the Prophet Ezekiel predicted that God would give Himself to us in a new way. In the Old Testament times God would send His Spirit to come upon a person whom He was going to use so that they would be able to do His will. But now what was Ezekiel saying that God was going to do?
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (especially vs 27)
And why was this going to be necessary?
Reread: Ezekiel 36:27b
Here we have God anticipating that we would need His life and power within us if we were ever going to be able to fulfill our purpose and do the things He would ask of us – like love our enemies – and be his witnesses to the world.
Acts 1:8
Agape love is a divine love. It is the Father loving us so much that “He gave His only begotten son”.
John 3:16
It is Jesus continuing that love by giving us His Spirit to indwell our own spirits. Then, asking us to “remain in his love” or “live in his love”.
John 15:9
And then it’s our turn to express to the world around us the divine love that God and Jesus have for us --- only possible for those who have Christ’s Spirit within them.
Galatians 2:20 / Reread: 1 John 3:16
Do you have someone who is impossible to love? Since we know that love is what characterizes God’s kingdom and is therefore God’s will, we can go to Him and say something like this:
“Father, this person (name them) has hurt me deeply. I have nothing in myself that wants to be civil to them, give to them, or pray for them. They have ripped my heart in two and I want nothing to do with them. But you have said that I am to love my enemies. Your Holy Spirit within me is able to love them through me if I’m willing to allow that to happen. I now release myself to be used by you in whatever way you want to express love to them. When the opportunity comes will you be the wisdom, strength, and power I need to love them with the same unconditional love that you’ve had towards me? Amen.”
Next Study: BS3E-A Decision is Needed
For further study on living in the Kingdom of God