Community of Love

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Glory to God!

Yesterday we had an amazing meeting. God's presence was thick as we worshipped Him. The Lord  ministered to us as we shared communion together and received prophetic words through various people in the meeting. It was very powerful indeed!

As part of the series on Living C.H.U.R.C.H., Richard Morschel spoke to us about being a community that lives in relationship. Looking at Luke 10:25-37, we noted the following:

• God created man for relationship. Genesis 2:18
• Man's relationship to God and man is expressed through love. Luke 10:27
• Jesus uses the parable of the merciful Samaritan to reveal a shift that needs to take place in the heart of man.
• The expert in the law's question, "Who is my neighbour" reveals a conditional heart that makes love dependent on the neighbour rather than on himself.
• Jesus exposes the expert in the law's conditional heart and asks, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?", showing that the responsibility to love one's neighbour is upon us and not dependent upon our neighbour!
• The parable shows us that we must take up our responsibility to love others and that the nature of God's love is unconditional.
• The nature of love that is demonstrated differentiates the believer from the unbeliever. John 13:34,35

Conditional Love

The conditional heart says,

• "My love for you is dependent on you and is your responsibility."
• (Physical) "I will love you as long as you look good and behave according to my expectations."
• (Emotons) "I will love you as long as you fulfill my emotional needs."
• (Mind) "I will love you as long as you agree with me."
• (Will) "I will love you as long as you do what I want."

The fruit of conditional love

• Fear of rejection, resulting in insecurity.
• Fear of punishment for not living up to expectations, resulting in stress.
• Fear of failure for not performing well enough.
• Fear of disappointing others.

Unconditional Love

The unconditional heart says, "My love fo you is my responsibility and I choose to love you unconditionally."

• (Physical) "I will love you despite your appearance and behaviour."
• (Emotions) "I will love you even if you don't love me."
• (Mind) "I will love you even if you disagree with me."
• (Will) "I will love you even if you don't do what I want."

The fruit of unconditional love

• Peace. Security. Confidence.
• No fear of punishment.
• No fear of rejection.
• No pressure to live up to wrong expectations.
• No fear of disappointing others.
• No stress to earn love and approval.

The believer is responsible to love others unconditionally and must learn to receive God's unconditional love to produce the fruit of His love in his or her life. Eph 5:1,2; 1 John 4:7-11

We are looking forward to having Dr Richard Maybery with us this week for our Recovering Lost Ground Conference on Friday and Saturday. For more information click here.