GOD’S WORD FOR FEBRUARY 28

We are reading from a daily devotional  called “Running To Win” written by Erwin Lutzer  and the late, great D.L. Moody.   Erwin Lutzer is a light in our day as D.L. Moody was in his.

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PURE LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:1-2

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

D.L. MOODY

A man may have wonderful knowledge, may be able to unravel the mysteries of the Bible, and yet be as cold as an icicle.  He may glisten like the snow in the sun.  Sometimes you have wondered why it was that certain ministers who have had such wonderful magnetism, who have such a marvelous command of the language, and who preach with such mental strength, haven’t had more conversions.  I believe, if the truth was known, you would find in no divine love back of their words, no pure love in their sermons.

ERWIN LUTZER

Yes, without love we will be empty and repel people from the gospel rather than attract them.  But we must distinguish human love from divine love.  Human love is good, but it seldom is able to survive a storm.  It says in effect, “As long as you are doing something for me, I can love you.”  Only divine love endures by saying, “I love you no matter what.”  Human loves says, “ I can only take so much”  It is only divine love that lasts.

God loved us when we were unlovable, unresponsive, and in rebellion (Romans 5:5).  Our love can endure because love comes from God.  Christian love, the kind in 1 Corinthians 13, is a supernatural gift from God.  The world can out-entertain us, the world can out-finance us, the world can outnumber us, but let it never be said that the world can out-love us.

PRAYER

Father, as I meditate on 1 Corinthians 13, may your love flow through me to others, even to those who regard me as their enemy.

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1 Peter 4:8

And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.

1 Corinthians16:14

Let all that you do be done with love.

John 13:34-35

 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Philippians 2:3

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.   Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

 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.  By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  We love Him because He first loved us.

 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

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