God Expects Us to Love
David W Palmer
What does God want of us? It is obvious from Scripture that one of his greatest expectations is that we love! God expects us to love both him and man:
(Matthew 22:37–39 NKJV) Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”
(John 15:12 NKJV) “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Why is God so keen on love? His word quite clearly shows us that God is love; He is the God of love.
(1 John 4:8 NKJV) “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
“God is love.” This is an astounding idea; but what I believe it is saying is that every choice, action, and move God makes is initiated, motivated, and controlled by love. The Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul further confirms this by making it clear that the love of God “compelled,” or “constrained,” him; he doesn’t just say that the Holy Spirit compelled and constrained him, but that the “love of God” did it.
(2 Corinthians 5:14 NKJV) “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died.”
Just before his death on the cross, Jesus underlined, reinforced, and clarified God’s focus on love by making it his one “new commandment.” This time, he asked us to love one another as he loved us!
(John 13:34 DKJV) “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
When the Holy Spirit narrates the New Testament, in summation of Jesus’s ministry to his twelve disciples, he said this:
(John 13:1 NLT) Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.
In the Holy Spirit’s mind, love was the prominent characteristic of Jesus’s whole training and discipleship program; he loved them during his ministry to them, and he continued his fervent love for them—right to the very end. The apostle John confirmed this; while looking back on his own discipleship experience, he later referred to himself as one Jesus loved:
(John 19:26 NKJV) When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!”
When we reflect on Jesus dying on the cross and allow God’s revelation of what happened there to dominate us, we begin to fathom the extent of his love. To reinforce this, we acknowledge the way he forgives, heals, reaches out to, intercedes for, and leads us. His love is infinite. Asking us to love others as he loved us would be impossible if not for his amazing grace, releasing the holy power of the Holy Spirit to empower us. Let’s read it again:
(Romans 5:5 NKJV) “… The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
God doesn’t give his love to us in a limited amount—by a trickle, drops, or daily rations. Here we see that God’s love is literally “poured” into our hearts by the Holy Spirit himself. This is not an imitation, a copy, or an inferior human love; it is the actual love of God, which controls all of his thoughts and actions; it compelled Paul and flowed through Jesus. If you have received Jesus’s new birth, this very same love has been poured into you. Therefore, you can fulfill God’s expectation that you love him and love Jesus’s other followers as he loved us.
Today, I encourage you; look to the Holy Spirit within you for the love you need right now in your situation. No matter how difficult it may appear, or what little lack of love has been shown to you by others; through God’s infinite supply of love that he has poured into you, you can flood love into the darkest situation. Remember:
“Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:8 NKJV)
When we underst
