17/06/2021
DECREE FORTY NINE.
FRUITFULNESS IN CHRISTIANITY ( 9 ).
FRUIT OF LOVE(6 ).
In this Decree we shall as usual lean on the HOLYSPIRIT into understanding the principles which the apostles taught the Church beyond the practice of love we we're taught in the last Decree. Thus in 1 PETER 4:18 Apostle Peter taught thus "............above all things have fervent love for one another for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumblings. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any one ministers, let him do it as with the ability which GOD supplies, that in all things GOD may be glorified through JESUS CHRIST to whom belong the glory and dominion, forever and ever, Amen."
Apostle John devoted a large chunk of his epistle on the subject particularly in 1 John 2. In chapter4:7__9; He teaches that the aggregate of believers' love for one another in totality equals love for GOD. That a believer who does not love his brother does not really know GOD, because GOD is love which HE demonstrated by sending HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON INTO WORLD TO DIE FOR THE SINS OF MANKIND, SO THAT THROUGH HIM WE MIGHT LIVE. John stated that GOD'S action is not predicated on the fact that mankind loved HIM, but rather that it was a demonstration of HIS LOVE towards us hence HE made HIS SON to be a propitiation for our sins.Therefore our love for one another since no one hasever seen HIM would amount to a reciprocation of HIS love on us.
Apostle Paul in ROMANS12:9__10 teaches that Christian love should be devoid of hypocrisy by avoiding evil and cleaving to good; by being kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honour and giving preference to one another, such being denoted by hospitality, contributing and distributing to the needs of the saints. The apostle defines the fulcrum of Christian Love in the context of a believer not paying evil for evil but rather blessing they that persecute and curse you; rejoicing with them that rejoice and weeping with them that weep. In Romans 13:7__10 Paul sums up thus "RENDER THERE FORE TO ALL THEIR DUE,.......OWE NO ONE ANYTHING EXCEPT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER FOR HE WHO LOVES ANOTHER HAS FULFILLED THE LAW........LOVE DOES NO HARM TO A NEIGHBOUR THEREFORE LOVE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW" In 1 COR 13:1__8 he rates love above every other spiritual gifts and extols the virtues e,g. kindness, long suffering, not proud etc SHALLOM!!!