The Challenge
Spend a few minutes reading, praying, and meditating on the following verses:
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Challenge: In your journal (or here https://www.quiettime.today/journal) write down how your actions show that you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that you love others just as much as you love yourself. Next, for each of these, write down how you think you could love them more.
Bonus verse
1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
More information: https://www.quiettime.today/blog/challenge-12
More Information
The final topic of the Abundant Life Challenge is love. Love is the highest virtue and it sums up the entire bible.
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
So what exactly is love? There are four different Greek words that are all translated into the same one English word love.
Philia: the love that friends or close siblings have for eachother, often translated as brotherly kindness
Storge: the natural affection that one has for things or people that are familiar, such as parents and their children
Eros: romantic love, between husbands and wives
Agape: selfless love, the love that God has for us, and that we are told to have for God and our neighbors.
The love from Matthew 22 above is agape love. Agape love does not come natural but it is the end result of the Christian growth process which starts with faith.
2 Peter 1:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
Peter explains that we Christians have the task to add multiple virtues to our faith, and there seems to be a progression in which one virtue builds on the foundation of the previous. So it certainly helps to have the more foundational virtues of knowledge, self-control, and perseverance in place in order to make the higher virtues of godliness, brotherly kindness (philia) and love (agape) part of our daily lives.
Is agape love a feeling, or a decision, or an action? Books have been written about this. It is actually not all that easy to define in a few words or even in a short sentence. So rather than trying to define it, let’s just look at what God tells us what it is and what it is not.
1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
The introduction verses tell us that even if we have excellent speech, or the gift of prophecy, or all understanding, or even all faith, if we do not have love, we are nothing. So the virtue of love is greater than all these. And even if we do all kinds of good works, such as feeding the poor and sacrificing ourselves, but if we do not have love, it will not profit us. So love is not simply a decision to do good works.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not]puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love suffers long, or is patient. If we love others, we do not get upset quickly by what they do.
Love is kind. If we treat others unkind or harsh, we do not have love.
Love does not envy. If we envy the success or blessings of others, we do not have love.
Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. If we focus on ourselves, we do not have love.
Love does not behave rudely. If we have no manners or act improperly, we do not have love.
Love does not seek its own. Love seeks the benefit of others, not of one self.
Love is not provoked. If we have a bad temper and get angry quickly, we do not have love.
Love thinks no evil. Love does not keep an account of bad things but is quick to forgive.
Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Love does not like anything that is evil.
Love rejoices in the truth. Love is always based on truth, never ever on lies.
Love bears all things. When we truly love others, we can bear anything thrown at us.
Love believes all things. Love is always based on strong faith.
Love hopes all things. Love is always based on strong hope.
Love endures all things. When we have true love, we can endure anything.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
Prophecies, tongues, knowledge, these we all have, but all partially. And they will fail and disappoint, even in this live. But love will never fail us.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
The difference between a child and mature man is easy for all to see. Mature people have stopped doing childish things. In the spiritual sense, we are still immature, we still do not see the spiritual side of things clearly all the time. Our spiritual sight is dimly. But one day we will clearly, when we see Jesus face to face.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The three virtues that endure when others such as prophecy, tongues and knowledge fail, are faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is agape love.
Some concluding remarks on love:
1 John 47 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
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