Expression of His Love – EP74 (2 Thess. 3:5)
2 Thessalonians 3:5
"May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance."
Hello and welcome back to the One Thing podcast. I couldn't help but to think today as I look at the news - I see different platforms in the media - of a lot of people expressing themselves. When we see our nation and we even look at the world as a whole, there are different gatherings there are all sorts of protest and - not that every single one is terrible and not that every single person is a terrible person - not saying that. But what I am finding is that there is a huge mass of expression coming from anger or disagreement, and a lot of those expressions - the way that man has been expressing themselves - has been through violence. Violent acts, maybe rioting or, you know as we look at the news we see people breaking stores open and all sorts of things that are just terrible.
"When man is in darkness he expresses himself in darkness."But when we really look at the world and we look at what the world has with the core and what the root of it all is we know that there is darkness. When man is in darkness he expresses himself in darkness. We look at everything as I said, through the media and all the different platforms, and we just see terrible things happening.
But here is the hope: As Christians we can ask ourselves: What are we expressing? What has God called our lives to be showing? What is supposed to be seen in our lives - and I love this Scripture in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3 verse 5. It says, “May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.” You see, this is such a hopeful verse. It's a simple prayer of Paul and he’s saying, “May the Lord lead our hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God” - and it's beautiful!
"...not only is he saying that we would have a full understanding of God's love toward us, but that there would also be an expression of the love of God."When I think of an understanding, I see the understanding of God's great love for us in our lives. We know that the Lord's love is everlasting we know that the Lord's love is powerful. His love is what brought us life - even when we were dead in our sins and transgressions, even when we didn't recognize who God was and we were on the outside. And so Paul is saying, “I hope and I pray that you would fully understand God's powerful love” - His love that has given us mercy! Mercy to call us from our evilness from our wicked downward past, to come into the light of Christ - to be able to serve Him, to be able to love Him. And - this is a beautiful part - not only is he saying that we would have a full understanding of God's love toward us, but that there would also be an expression of the love of God.
I'm just seeing that the Christian - the man or woman of God the child of God - is the one who has received His powerful love, and understood how gracious and how great that it is that an expression of that same love is also brought about. You see, we don't riot, we don't rise up in hatred or in bitterness or, you know, raging disagreement, but we rise up in the love of God. How does that look what does that mean? It means that we are patient through every circumstance. It means that we do not react according to our flesh, but we react according to God. It means that we do not speak out of line and we do not speak without self-control, but we speak and we express - even with our words - the love, the peace and the goodness of God.
"...God is so powerful that His love for us is a love that transforms us to also love Him and to love one another."Hallelujah! It goes on and on and on. Think of the thousands of ways that God can express His love through us - through friendship, through our spouses through the way that we speak to one another and we help one another. The way that we pray. The way that we are concerned. And God is so powerful that His love for us is a love that transforms us to also love Him and to love one another. What is the expression in our lives today - what are we expressing as we speak at our jobs, what are we expressing as we are in our homes? Is it a love for God and for our brethren? Or is it like the world - something different. Something in opposition to the great goodness of our God?
So I pray today as Paul prayed, that the Lord would lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God in the patient endurance that comes from Christ. Praise God today that He is calling us to a deeper walk with Him. Praise God today that He has made a way that we would express His love - knowing His great love for us, and also bringing it back to Him and to our brethren. Thank You God, that You are so good. Amen.