Praise for their Love (Eph. 1:15c)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2018 9:55 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  “Praise for Their Love”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 1:15c

 

            Message of the verses:  “and you love for all the saints”

 

            In today’s SD we will look at the second sub-section under the main section “Praise for Believers,” and in that Paul praises the believers before he begins his rather lengthy prayer that he will pray for those believers, and in both sections they have great meaning for believers today as after all it comes from the Word of God.

 

            When a person becomes a believer he will begin to have love for all the saints.  I realize that as we look through some of Paul’s letters that there are sometimes difficulties between different believers, but since all believers have been given new life in Christ and are forgiven for all their sins then we should love one another.  I am not saying that we have to have everyone who is a believer that perhaps we have some difficulties with over for lunch, but we should love them with the love that Christ loves us.  John MacArthur adds “To truly love a person in the Lord is to love him as the Lord loves him—genuinely and sacrificially.”  As difficult as this may seem and do, it is a true statement to follow.  If God can speak and the planets are made then He can help us to love our brothers in the Lord.

 

            1 John 3:14 says “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”  MacArthur goes on to write “Important as it is, sound theology is no substitute for love.  Without love the best doctrine is like ‘a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal’ (1 Cor. 13:1).  True salvation goes from the head and heart of the believer out to other believers and out to the world to touch unbelievers in Christ’s name.  True salvation produces true love, and true love does ‘not love with word or with tongue, but in deed with truth’ (1 John 3:18).  Always in the New Testament true spiritual love is defined as an attitude of selfless sacrifice that results in generous acts of kindness done to others.  It is far more than a feeling, an attraction or emotion.  When the Lord had washed the feet of the proud and self-seeking disciples, He told them that what He had done for them was the example of how they were to love each other (John 13:24).  John emphasizes the same truth:  ‘We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heat against him, how does the love of God abide in him?  Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:16-18).’”

 

            As we look at this kind of love we can see that this is the kind of love that the Ephesian church had, but when we look at the book of Revelation we can see that this did not last, for John says in Revelation chapter two that the Ephesians left their first love and this is the first step in what can be seen as a downward spiral that can be seen by five of the seven churches that are mentioned in the second and third chapters of Revelation.  It starts with leaving their first love to having to have the Lord actually knock on the outside door of the church of Laodicea. 

 

            One of the things that true believers need to do is to keep their faith and love in balance.  We have heard of monks or hermits and countless others in church history hiding away in order not to sin against the Lord, but in doing that they are not spreading the good news of the gospel to others, not keeping their faith and love in balance. 

 

            MacArthur concludes this sub-section by writing “The Christians to whom Paul wrote his Ephesian letter had the right balance, and it was for their great faith and their great love that the apostle assured them, ‘I…do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.’”  

 

            In our next SD we will begin the longest part of this section from the last half of the first chapter of Ephesians chapter one and that is all about the prayer that Paul prayed for them.  Looking at Paul’s prayers for the saints in the New Testament letters he wrote is, I believe going to be a wonderful study, even though we are now only looking at once such prayer.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to believe that the Lord is doing a work in my heart about love as certain circumstances have happened to make me focus more on loving.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To listen to the Lord as He teaches me more about love.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “They showed God’s approval upon Him” (Acts 2:22).  “"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.”

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness’?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

11/28/2018 11:12 AM