Order of Operation: Love

Love is the last of the things Peter stated needs to be added to our Faith. In the previous entry, we discussed mutual affection and how it is essentially the most basic way that humans understand love. Mutual affection isn’t the same as God’s love, but if we learn how to extend the affection that we feel for family and friends to our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are in effect learning how to reduce the conditions required for our affection. However, God’s love is unconditional, so to truly fulfill the order Peter laid out, we have to learn to love like God, without condition. Paul explains how such a love should look.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Perhaps we all show glimpses of such love, but we need to be consistent. We need to demonstrate that pure love for family and friends, not just when things are good between us but also when things are not. We need to show that love for our spiritual family, not just when we are at church but also in our everyday lives. However, those are relatively easy to accomplish. To truly display love as the Bible instructs, we have to show it not just for people with which we have relationships but also for those that we do not even know. Perhaps even more difficult, we must love those who are against us and mean us harm.

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. – Luke 6:27-28

Love is more than lip service. While loving words are important and can uplift those around us. Love in its truest form is action. We have to want the best and do the best for those around us. We have to want to do good for those that we encounter, even if bad is all they want for us.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:18

It is sometimes said that being a Christian is hard, and it can be. Most would think that’s because of all the things from which Christians must abstain. However, that’s not really the truth. Being a Christian can be hard because of how committed we must be to love. John makes an interesting point.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. – 1 John 3:14

Love is so closely tied to our salvation that John argues that its presence is the sign that a person has been saved.

In a previous message (2 vs 10), we discussed how Jesus condensed God’s commandments down to loving God above all and loving your fellow man as you love self. Based on that order, one would be led to believe that loving God is the most important commandment, and it is. However, the Bible also tells us that it is impossible to truly obey the first commandment without first obeying the second. A couple reasons are given for that.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. – 1 John 4:20

First, John makes the argument that we have never seen God. Our knowledge of his existence is based on faith. John is saying that it is doubtful that we can truly love someone that we’ve never encountered physically when we can’t even love those that we have.Christ

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. - James 3:9

Second, James points out how contradictory it is of us to use our words to exalt God while simultaneously using them to debase our fellow people who are made in his likeness. By extension, is it not also contradictory to say we love God while also not loving our fellow people who are made in his likeness? Loving God is paramount, and clearly, so is loving our fellow human beings.

Love is crucial in our walk as Christians. The Bible makes that point over and over. Peter, in particular, believed it to be so important that he held it as the final step in the order he presented. Goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love - those are the steps in Peter’s order, but we must be careful. The order is not a simple checklist. You can’t just exhibit one quality and then move on as if your mission is complete. Exhibiting love consistently requires a constant exhibition of all the other qualities. Love itself isn’t something that you can demonstrate once and be finished. You have to be able to demonstrate it and the other qualities day in and day out for the rest of your life. Finally, when that life is over, if you have adhered to the order as Peter instructed, you will be able to meet God and reflect over a life lived righteously.

Chris Lawyer

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