Growing in the Love of Christ

For the Christian, this is where it all begins. God, who IS love initiates a relationship and through the wonderful outworking of the Holy Spirit brings a regenerative power to a life of darkness and suddenly a living hope becomes a reality where it did not exist before. True Love, the Love of God is realized and from there we have the opportunity to grow in it and see it prevail in our daily walk providing a blessed assurance that things are always going to be okay!

However, to grow in the love of Christ is our decision and one worth making. God has made Himself known to us in His Word and has extended to us a grace and compassion that we do not deserve. His love, defined throughout the Scripture is pure and its expression through our Lord Jesus Christ is the only means by which His wrath could have ever been satisfied.

God did not love us for no reason. His love came with a purpose, and He desires to work it out in our lives for His own glory in facilitating His redemptive plan for humanity. Consider the following text concerning the effect love has on the life of the believer as we grow in it. Paul was certainly committed to his spiritual growth in the love of God as evidenced by Galatians 2:20,

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The causal portion of this Scripture is located towards the end where Paul writes, “who loved me, and gave himself for me.” This was God’s loving expression to Paul, and it was in the form of sacrifice which results in reconciliation and eternal life for the believer. However, there is more in this life that God desires to do.

Be”CAUSE” of what God did,

Christ lived in Paul and lives in the believer today! “Christ liveth in me…”

That moment that we surrender our lives to the love of God, Christ takes up residence inside us and our lives are no longer our own. God has, in His love, set us apart for service and intends to use us as instruments of His righteousness for His glory first and the benefit of those around us. As God has loved us, so we should love others.

Faith became a way of life for Paul and has become the way of life for the believer today! “I live by the faith of the Son of God…”

The life that Paul lived before his conversion on the road to Damascus was very different than the record we have from that point forward. Evidence abounds of the growing love of Christ in Paul’s life as we read his letters in the New Testament. Faith became the driver of his life but not just any faith. It was the faith “of the Son of God.” The same power at work in Christ was at work in Paul empowering him to do things his flesh would have never been capable of.

Paul died, and the power of Christ rose up in the place of his flesh, and the believer’s flesh still dies today! “I am crucified with Christ…”

Ultimately, the old Paul died and in the place of “the old man” was a genuine, authentic Christian regenerated in the love of God who by a life of faith became a living sacrifice with the intention of doing nothing other than “preaching Christ crucified.”

Is the love of God alive in you? The above are good indicators by which to derive the answer. Is your life characterized by sacrifice to God and others? Is faith at work in your daily rigor actively assisting you in your decisions and choices? Who really matters most in your life today? CHRIST? or your “self?” Do you have the desire to put your “self” to death so that others may see and know CHRIST?

Blessings and may the love of Christ grow in us to God’s glory!