Friday, May 1, 2015

I Timothy 1:5 – Mark of the Believer

Daily Devotional Bible Verse
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5 ESV)
Love is so vast and deep that humans will never reach its end in understanding or experience. Here, love is the believer’s “charge”, in Romans it is the “fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10), and in I John an accurate depiction of our God; “God is love” (I John 4:8). So love is both something to be felt and enjoyed together, and an attribute of our God to be learned and emulated over a lifetime. Essentially, what it boils down to is that genuine biblical love is a life’s work in itself!
Love is both an experience and a pursuit. Given the context, the commentator John MacArthur describes love as, “characterized by self-denial and self-sacrifice, for the benefit of others, and it is the mark of a true Christian”. For God loved us first, even as ill-deserving rebels, by sacrificially sending his only Son for our great good and his great glory! This indeed is how we ought
to love one another, at a cost to ourselves on others’ behalf. Love is expensive, costly, and not a thing to be taken lightly.
Meditate on the passages used in today’s devotion. How do they change your understanding and perception of love?

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