Love Is the Spring of True Holiness

-


Scripture

I Thess. 3:12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you.  13 And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 

Observation

Paul was overflowing with love for the Thessalonian believers. He understood this as coming from God, for he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore with God’s nature. This nature is holy love and it literally bubbled out of him, and reached out to the world around him.

This was Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians. He wanted them to know this love from God which he had experienced, therefore he prayed that the Lord would make their love increase. Then he connects this idea of abounding love with holiness in the very next sentence. Somehow abounding with love and being strengthened in holiness are related, for God’s holy love is the spring of true holiness.

Application

The lessons from Paul are many. First we understand that he spends time in prayer for these whom he has led to Christ. The genuine nature of his love for God and others is evident in the way he literally prays in his letter. By his action we should be encouraged to action. Prayer is to be a major focus of our lives. We are to pray for those who need to know Christ, and then continue to pray of those who have come to Christ that they might continue to grow. Holiness, or the sanctified life is God’s desire for all of humanity. We are to participate in God’s holy work by being a people of prayer.

Paul had experienced the holiness of God in his life which was springing from holy love. God took a young man who was intent on persecuting Christians and transformed him by filling him with his Spirit. Now, instead of anger unleashed against those who had come to love Christ, he was “abounding” in that very love. It was as if the windows of heaven were opened and God’s love was poured out over and over and over again, filling Paul and spilling out and splashing on the world. Love of God and love of neighbor were the natural response, not because of Paul’s effort, but because of the presence of the Spirit in his life. The prayer wasn’t just for the Thessalonians, but for you and me too! We are to be filled to overflowing with God’s holy love.

The presence of God’s holy love within us is holiness. Holiness is visible in the ways in which we interact with the world. Holiness is putting others first. Holiness is God’s love that always seeks the best in others and the very best for the entire community. This is how we live when we abound with holy love.

Prayer

Lord, please fill me today with your holiness.  Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Take Off Your Ornaments

-
Scripture: Ex. 33:4 ¶ When the people heard these harsh words, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments. Ex. 33:5 For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you.’” Ex. 33:6 Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. Observation: The people had sinned before God by making and worshiping the golden calf!  They had taken their golden jewelry — the earrings and other items they had gotten from the Egyptians and used them to create an idol.  Now, in an act of humility and repentance they were to take off all of their jewelry and ornaments.  It was a time of mourning over their sin and it included intentional action on the part of the Israelites.  Application: We don’t do all that well with humility and repentance!  It seems that we live in a time when we try to carry
Read more

Does God Value Boys More than Girls?

-
Scripture: Lev. 12:1 ¶ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Lev. 12:2 Speak to the people of Israel, saying: ¶ If a woman conceives and bears a male child, she shall be ceremonially unclean seven days; as at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. Lev. 12:3 On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Lev. 12:4 Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days; she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. Lev. 12:5 If she bears a female child, she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation; her time of blood purification shall be sixty-six days. Lev. 12:6 ¶ When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. Lev. 12:7 He shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement on her
Read more

The Advantage of Sanctification

-
Scripture: Rom. 6:22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Observation: Two sides of life are presented here in great contrast.  One is a life of sin and enslavement to evil.  The other side of life is freedom which provides the advantage of sanctification (or holiness as some translate the word) that leads to eternal life.  The options here are a life of sin, slavery and death; or freedom, holiness and eternal life.  The advantage of holiness or sanctification is the benefit of the life of freedom.  Jesus died so that we might be made holy like him and this is something that is offered as a “fruit” or “advantage” right now.  The end is eternal life — but the living of life is that it can be lived out in holiness.  The next verse is really just an affirmation of the verse 22.  Sin will lead
Read more