The Love that Brings Growth!
All the world loves "love". The entire world set its’ clock to view the Royal Wedding on last week. We rejoice when weddings take place, and when babies are born to happy parents. We marvel at couples who celebrate thirty, forty, fifty, and even sixty years of marriage. Whether we admit it or not, all of us want to experience love, "just because" – not because we try to make someone love us. Ephesians 4 talks about the kind of love that brings about growth:
15 But speaking the truth in love [in all things—both our speech and our lives expressing His truth], let us grow up in all things into Him [following His example] who is the Head—Christ. 16 From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love. Ephesians 4:15-16 (AMP)
The kind of love that this passage talks about is the kind of love that Jesus modeled. As He ministered, even though He was the head of all Creation, humbled Himself and gently spoke the truth in love. His life also exhibited this kind of love. A love that spoke to the truth of God’s Word. And this love multiplied itself so much so that those who received His love was always like arteries flowing from our heart, it would send that love to others. When this happens then everyone around begins to grow and mature, into an "unselfish love" that builds others up, not destroys.
Our natural inclination from cradle to grave is not like this. We enter the world wanting what we want and we want it right away. We rarely find people that are motivated to think first of the needs of others, particularly if it involves self-sacrifice. Ye this is what Christ did and continues to do for us. His unselfish love spread throughout the body of believers and continues to do so. He established this kind of love to such as an extent that the entire body began to grow and mature. Going from selfish to selfless. Oh what love the world would experience if just the church folk learn this kind of love.
Maria