The scientific method requires experimental results to be replicated with a high degree of reliability using the same methodology before the results can be recognized as scientific knowledge. The love of God must similarly be reproducible and transmissible to be regarded as sacred knowledge for us. “God is love” (1John 4:8,16 KJV). At its source, it has been revealed love comes from God. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Love was transmitted to humanity through the sacrificial death of the Son of God for the transgressions of man against God and man. “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1John 4:19). Our capacity to return love to God is engendered in us through His Spirit working in us. Once we discover in us “dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18), then it becomes apparent that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Accounting the Spirit of God to be the author of the love that comes from us, while we are fully engaged in willing and practicing it, is to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (Ephesians 5:2). “And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it” (2John 1:6). LORD, work Your love in us, that we would have the practicing kind of religion that Alvin York had. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Love Is Kind
Try A Little Kindness
When was the last time you were accused of being kind? “Love is kind [Greek, chrēsteuomai, obliging, willing to help]” (1Corinthians 13:4 NET). I noticed a clip from a television show, where a doctor was speaking rather abruptly to a very young patient. I immediately thought of the expression “kindly doctor” as what we would rather see in a physician’s bedside manner. How often do we see people in public, who seem to have a scowl on their face, like the sun’s in their eyes? But, do we do that, too, so others won’t think they can run over us, or that we smile for no reason and are senile? I ran across a great grandmother volunteering at a food distribution center. She had a kindly face, and I don’t think she was senile. Kindness is not a look, but a heart attitude, which truly “doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil” (1Corinthians 13:5 KJV). Only the Spirit of God can work that in a human heart! LORD, make it so in me through the power of Jesus’ name. Amen.