MORE LOVE AND GOOD WORKS
Tuesday – March 13, 2018 – Adar 26, 5778
Welcome back to this illuminating Bible Study taken from the Book of Hebrews. Today I will pickup with our Hebrew text from last Friday. We will study a little more about “love and good works”. So, let’s read aloud our primary text and dive right back into our study. We are studying not only to increase information but to get to the very center of the Truth. It is by knowledge that we make the Words of God our words, having faith in those Words without wavering. In this way when coupled with love we can move mountains, not only in our lives but in others’ lives (if they believe God will do it through us). Let us read.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (KJV)
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Last week I reviewed that love is not an emotional response or a physical feeling primarily although those things may be present. Love is a spiritual decision to obey the Word of God, to have selfless thoughts, words and actions in our lives as we are led of the Holy Spirit, and to understand that in Christ Jesus we have Blood Covenant responsibilities and benefits. In John 14:21 Jesus tells us that if we keep His Word He and His Heavenly Father which is also our Heavenly Father will manifest in our lives. In our disobedience there is an absence of the manifestations of God in our lives. A lack of constant diligent efforts to continually develop faith is disobedience (sin, rebellion). Remember Jesus talking about the man who built his house on a rock and the one who built his house on sand (Luke 6). The rock is Jesus, the Word of God, the Blood Covenant. We honor and abide by the Blood Covenant when we are dead to self. I also mentioned the selfless aspect of Bible love (agape). First Corinthians chapter thirteen is commonly known as the love chapter however be clear that this is not a full definition of Bible love but one aspect, the selfless or absence of selfishness aspect. Read aloud.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (AMP)
4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
Wow, looks to me like this is an all-day job, every day! Like everything else in the Kingdom of God, the more we become like Him in thought, word, and deed the easier this becomes and then one day it is our nature, identical to His. I used the Amplified translation for this particular passage in the KJV uses the word “charity”. When you look in your Strong’s Concordance you will find that the Greek word translated as “charity” is agape. In a way, charity is not that bad of a translation. When we give to a particular charity we are giving with no expectation of a benefit or return from the recipient of our charity (love – selflessness). I think we all know that God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 (KJV)
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Mankind, Adam, was born (brought into existence) of God in the beginning, and we are born of God when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives. Before salvation our spirit man was dead and our nature was like unto that of the Serpent, the world, however when we were quickened (made alive) by the Holy Spirit at salvation once again (like Adam, like Jesus) we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, our capacity to have the nature of God is restored, and we once again we are fully in His image and likeness.
Genesis 1:26 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
You and I brother and sister are in the image and likeness of God, our spirit man has the same spiritual DNA as God, for we were made just a little lower than God (Psalm 8:5). Therefore, if God is love, then so are we love. At the start of our walk with God our love is infantile compared to Gods’ but know that we have the potential to love just as God loves. We must not shrink back from who we are in Christ Jesus. Shrinking back is fear and fear is sin. Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow.
Until our next publication, I speak blessing into your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)
24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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