Love has been distorted.  In an ideal world every mention of love that proceeded from our lips, each act of love performed with our hands, and all affections described as love would reflect the love of God for his redeemed people.  Yet in reality those choice words, noble actions, and seemingly pure emotions are tainted.  No worse, yet much more visible, are the mockeries considered to be love in the media and our culture.  Surroundings skew the biblical picture.  Our hearts pervert it.  The entire concept of love must be restored. 

God renews our minds as we examine His word and the portrayal of love therein.  Before there was time, God planned the demonstration of His love for His people.  1 John 4:10 defines God’s love, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  In Romans 5:8 Paul writes, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  The cross forever describes God’s love toward the church.  No greater delineation exists. 

We began with God’s love because it alone provides the model and motivation for our imitation.  What is our response?  Simply put, the believer loves God.  The redeemed loves the redeemer.  The Christian delights and exults in this treasure that has found him.  Jonathan Edwards said, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” Jesus demanded a devoted entirety of being in saying, “all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.”  Direct every shred of delight toward all that He is.  Our affections should stir when considering Him who chose to reveal His glorious power and wonderful grace to wandering, rebellious sinners.  Don’t graduate from that.  Dwell in the gospel.

We love God but we also love His people.  1 John 4:19-20 states, “we love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” Wayne Grudem explains, “imitate this attribute of God (love), first by loving God in return, and second by loving others in imitation of the way God loves them.”  That is one tall order.  Temptation allures you to think that because you put that neighbor’s needs above your own last Tuesday you deserve a medal.  Our wicked heart continually tells us we’ve loved enough.  The verbs concerning love in 1 John 4 were written in the present tense for good reason. “Beloved, let us love one another” (1 Jn 4:7)

Finally, God alone works the grace needed in our hearts to enable our love toward Him and His people.  Paul’s prayers for the young Thessalonian church serve as good reminders of our absolute dependence.  He prayed for God’s work, “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” and their inner aim, “may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (1 Thess. 3:12, 2 Thess. 3:5).  Pray that God would energize your affections and renew your mind concerning the biblical virtue of love.   

From Paul Tripp's chapter, "War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake," in the forthcoming book, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God:

I would ask you again to be humbly honest with yourself as you are reading. If I sat with you and I listened to recording of the last month of your words, whose kingdom, what kingdom, would I conclude those words are spoken to serve? Would it be the kingdom of self with its self-focused demandingness, expectancy, and entitlement? Would I hear a person who is quick to criticize, quick to judge, quick to slam, and quick to condemn, because people are always violating the laws of your kingdom? Is the greatest moral offense in your life an offense that someone makes against the laws of your kingdom? When this happens do you use words as a punishment or as a weapon? Do you use words to rein this person back into loyal service of the purposes of your kingdom of one?

Or would I hear you using words of love, honestly, encouragement, and service because your heart is taken up with the big-sky purposes of the kingdom of God. The entire law is summarized by a single command. If you had written that, what would you have written next? I probably would have written, “Love God above all else.” But that is clearly not what Paul writes. He writes, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why is that an adequate summary of all that God calls me to? Oh, it is important to get this truth. It is only when I love God above all else that I will ever love my neighbor as myself. It’s only when God is in the rightful place in my life that I will treat you with the love that I have received from him. Brothers and sisters, hear this. You don’t fix language problems, you don’t fix communication problems, and you don’t fix word problems horizontally first; you first fix them vertically.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Have you ever arrived at home from work to find that you are not prepared to face what lies behind the doors of your house? I found this quote from C. J. Mahaney's book, Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God, to be helpful in adjusting my heart for my job as a husband and a father.

I saw that my commute could best be utilized as a time of transition, so that I might be prepared to finish the day by loving and serving my family well. So I made it a practice of pulling the car over a few blocks from home so I could take a couple of minutes to make an effective transition in my soul. There on the side of the road, I meditated on Epheisans 5 as well as some other passages. I confessed to God my sinful tendency to be selfish and sought to prepare my heart to serve my wife and children when I arrived home. (Sex, Romance and the Glory of God, p. 49)

HT: Life Together