Chapter One

 

The Divine Ability To Love

 

In these lessons we will not just show you that you must walk in love, but we will show you HOW to do it.

It seems that God lays some pretty heavy responsibilities on us. God tells us that we must love the unlovable. We are told that we must love and forgive people in spite of what they do to us.

We thank and praise God that no matter what God commands us to do, He does not expect us to do alone. For every responsibility, God has given us the provision necessary to fulfill it. A man once said that "responsibility is simply our response to God’s ability."

When it comes to the love walk, God has given us His divine ability to do it:

 

When we were born again we received the nature of God within us. God came to dwell in us by the person of the Holy Spirit. God is love. If the nature of God is in us and God is love then that means the divine ability to love dwells within us. The love of God in us is a SUPERNATURAL love.

There is an element of faith to walking in the God kind of love. This is one of the first secrets to walking in love. You must first believe that this love abides IN you. You must believe that this love will flow OUT of you.

Faith is not based on feelings (2 Cor. 5:7). Therefore you must act in love toward others regardless of how you FEEL towards them. You must believe that God will strengthen you to walk in love towards anyone. Faith is relying upon the ability of God within you to love the person. It is not attempting to conjure up feelings of love towards the person.

It is impossible to claim to be a born again Christian and yet harbor hatred towards a brother or sister:

 

Sometimes there are some who have accepted Christ begin to doubt their salvation. Satan deceives them into not knowing whether they are saved or not. John gives a full proof way of knowing whether or not we are truly born of God: Do we love love the brethren? Here is the true test of salvation.

If you have hatred towards anyone, then one of two things has happened: either you have not been born again or you have allowed Satan to deceive you into BELIEVING that you have hatred.

Remember, God is love. The one who is born of Him has the God of love abiding in Him. If you have hatred, bitterness, and strife abiding in you then this source is not from God but from Satan.

The word "murderer" used in 1 John 3:15, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, comes from the Greek word anthropoktonos (Strong’s # 443). It means manslayer. This word is used twice in the whole New Testament. Jesus told the pharisees, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning....." (John 8:44). John 8:44 and 1 John 3:15 are the only two times this word is used, both relating to the work of Satan.

When we walk in love we walk in the life of God. When we choose to hate then we are walking under the dominion of Satan. Satan no longer has dominion over our lives so we are free to walk in the God kind of love (Col. 1:12-14).

Notice how easy it is for the unconverted person to express hatred. They do it through gossip, fighting, killing, and other means. This is Satan’s expression of hatred of man through man. A person who hates must vent that hatred because he has the nature of Satan in him.

Just as the person who has the nature of Satan does what his father does, the person with the nature of God should have an overwhelming desire to act like God. Let’s continue reading the third chapter of First John:

 

John tells us how we may perceive the love of God. The Everyday Bible translates verse 16 this way: "This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for our brothers."

If we are to walk in the God kind of love then we must walk in it the same way Jesus did. The true love of God expresses itself in some kind of action. The true love of God is not a bunch of talk. It expresses itself.

The King James version says that when we do not express that love through our actions then we are shutting up our BOWELS of compassion. The love that is in us must be released.

When we need to use the bathroom we attempt to shut up our physical bowels until we have found a toilet. Depending on how badly one must go it can be a painful experience. Once we have used the toilet then we are relieved. We feel better. If we keep this waste in our bowels to long it could cause embarrassing problems.

Just as we should release that which is in our physical bowels, we should release the compassion that desires to supernaturally flow out of us. The life and nature of God is in us and must be released.

One cannot truly claim to have the love of God and not be able to share his or her resources with a needy person. There are many who learn about faith and prosperity. They begin to apply these principles and become proud and arrogant. They will see their brother or sister going through a hard time and attack them for having a lack of faith.

Many of these super Christians will show the needy person scriptures about their problem. Afterwards they will tell the person, "Now just believe God and He'll bring you through," yet, never sharing their resources with the person in need. John is saying that Unless you help them by giving them what they need your words are worth nothing.

I remember my friend and I drove to a Marine base to check on a man who recently had given his life to the Lord. When we saw him, he had slipped back intodrinking and was cursing. We talked with him and found out that another brother borrowed an item from him. He had dire need of this item that following week but could not afford to buy another one. He confronted the borrower with the problem but was told the item was lost. When he asked for compensation he was told, "Just trust God brother, He'll provide you with another"

This is not the way you treat one who is new to the faith. The actions of this older Christian caused this man to lose his confidence in Christianity and slip back into the world.

It is easy to say, "I love you." However, the love of God must be expressed. That supernatural love abides on the inside of every born again believer and is waiting to be released. Therefore, we must learn HOW to release that supernatural love which is in us.

 

Chapter Two

 

Understanding The Love Of God

 

Let us once again read 1 John 3:16 again from the Everyday Bible:

 

If we desire to walk in the supernatural God kind of love then we must first understand what this love is. John tells us exactly how we can know what real love is. Look at the sacrifice that Jesus made by dying on the cross for us. He did not have to do it but He did. He did not only for the lovable, but also for those we might find difficult to love:

 

Even when we were dead in sins He loved us. This shows us the unconditional love of God. He doesn’t just love those who manage to live righteously and holy. He loved us even when we were cursing, drinking, doing drugs, and chasing the opposite sex.

We find this same truth in Romans:

 

Christ did not die for godly people. He did not die for people who are wonderful and easy to love. He died for the UNGODLY. Christ did not wait until we had changed our ways. He did not wait until we had stopped drinking and cursing. He did not wait until we had stopped our adultery and fornication. While we were sinners, He died for us.

He died for people who did not deserve the salvation He offers. He died for people that are otherwise difficult to love. Many people want to wait until they straighten up their life before they accept Christ. My friend, if you have not been born again do not wait because you never will straighten up. Christ died for you BECAUSE He knew that you can not. Accept Him as you are and HE will change you.

This same unselfish love that God has for every human being is the same love that He expects you and I to walk in as born again believers. It is possible to do because this love has been shed abroad in our hearts:

 

When we try to conjure up feelings us love towards someone who is unlovable it will not work. We need the supernatural love that the Holy Spirit has made available for us to walk in.

Now let us contrast God’s love with everyday human love. God loves people IN SPITE of who they are while we love people for WHO they are or what they can do for us. Most parents have a natural love for their children whether they are saved or not. Married couples in the TWILIGHT of their marriage are deeply in love. Close friends and relatives love each other. Employers and employees who treat each other with respect have a love for each other.

The love described above is more of a selfish kind of love. It is easy to love those who love you and treat you right (Matt. 5:46-47). Notice that God loved us irrespective of how we treated Him. This is the love that He desires that you and I possess.

Many people find it hard to love the rotten kid down the street. They find it difficult to love a friend or relative that has wronged them. After some years, many married couples do not love each other anymore. An employee cannot love a difficult employer and vice versa. This is because their love or lack of it is based on the natural selfish human kind of love. God would love these people in spite of the things mentioned above and expects us to do the same.

Some months after I left the military I took a job with in civil service. I worked for a man who could be very abrasive with his employees.

One day I was called into his office he had me shut the door and sit down. "Troy," he began, "I’ve been told that you haven’t been doing any work back there, you’ve been showing favoritism to certain people, etc... If I were to write your performance report right now you would get an unsatisfactory report. Do not think that you cannot be fired. You are still on probation and can be let go at the end of this term."

I was shocked because I was not expecting this. In the military when a supervisor was abrasive I usually had no choice but to take it for fear of losing a stripe and even pulling some jail time. However , in this sitauation I thought: "Wait a minute, I’m a civilian now. I don’t have to sit here and take this. I can tell him what he can do with this job."

However, the love of God in me would not let me retaliate even though my flesh wanted to very badly. After all, the worst that could happen was that I would have been fired. I was young enough to get another job.

Nevertheless I told him, "Sir, I don’t know where all of this is coming from and I don’t care. In the next couple of months I will show you that I am the best employee that you have ever had." Later that night I asked God to reveal the truth to this man and I then set out to prove myself.

Since then I have received two promotions, many cash awards, and several superior performance awards. This man has had nothing but praise for me to those he talks with. This was because I decided to walk in the love of God rather than retaliate. I did that and God blessed me for it.

This supernatural God kind of love is not only needed in relationships with others but is most certainly needed in our efforts to evangelize. We cannot witness only to the sinners we like. God may lead you to some "unlikeable" sinners.

When I was still in the Air Force their was a young man that worked in our unit who had been accused of raping two women. I had the same thoughts that everyone else did about him and avoided him.

Later, his current girlfriend came to talk to me. She had received Christ some years back and we attended the same church. She had later backslidden. She had gotten involved with this same young man and became pregnant with his child. She was deeply in love with him.

She remembered that only Christ could help her and this young man in the situation that they were in. She believed that he was innocent of the accusations and did not want to see him go to jail. She came to me and asked me to help.

I was reluctant to have anything to do with this situation but God began to show me the prejudice that I had allowed in my heart. I began to minister to this sister and made a promise to go speak with this man.

Sometime later I went to talk with Him and shared Jesus Christ with him. I asked him, "Did you rape those two ladies." He told me he did not and explained to me what really happened. I told him, "IF you are innocent then we will pray and get you out of this mess."

I had friend in the same unit who was also a very strong Christian. I asked for his help and we both began to minister and pray with this man. Some weeks later he gave his life to Christ. However, he still had to go to trial for the charges against him. My friend and I continued to intercede for him.

One of the women decided she did not want to testify against him. The other woman’s testimonies were not consistent and were contradicting. This caused embarrasment to the prosecuting attorneys.

They decided to work a deal with him to drop the charges if he would just accept a general discharge from the Air Force. This he gladly accepted. He married the young lady and they are both serving the Lord today.

The only way to win the ungodly to Christ is to love them as Jesus loves them. This is what makes God’s love so much different from natural human love.

The God kind of love is thoroughly described for us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

 

The word charity in this passage comes from the Greek word agape which means "unconditional love." In the English language there is only one word for love but in the Greek there are several word and all of them mean different things. The type of love God expects us to walk in is described in detail here.

If we want to check as whether or not we are walking in TRUE love all we need to do is read this passage. We can ask ourselves, "Am I patient? Am I kind or am I mean to people? Do I get envious when I see another person doing well or am I happy for them? etc..." If we are not walking in these things then we are not walking in the GOD KIND OF LOVE.

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Chapter Three

 

The Law Of Love

 

When I was a child I was taught the importance of the ten commandments. I was sure that as long I endeavoured to keep these commandments then God would be pleased with me.

This line of thinking was still ingrained within me after I received Christ as my saviour and was born again. One evening I took my Bible and a notebook and I began to write all of the ten commandments down. My intent was to study them and live by them. I found this to be a difficult task to undertake.

Although this is a noble thing to do, God has a much better way. He no longer requires us to attempt to keep the ten commandments. Jesus has given us new commandment to follow:

 

In The New Testament: An Expanded translation by Kenneth S. Wuest, John 13:34 is written this way: "A commandment, a new one, I am giving you, that you should be constantly loving one another with a divine and sacrificial love; even as I love you, you also be loving one another."

Wuest shows us that this is a divine love that we are to love one another with, not a human love. We are to love as Jesus loves us. This can only come by the power of God. That is why this is a divine love - the agape love.

I was in a Bible study many years ago where the teacher referred to this as the eleventh commandment. I have come to realize since then that this is the thinking of a lot of Christians. However, this thinking is in error.

The word "new" used in John 13:34 comes from the Greek word kainos (Strong’s #2537). This is the same word used in 2 Cor. 5:17 which says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Notice that in this passage the "new" REPLACES the "old." This is the same thing that happened concerning the ten commandments in the Old Testament. Jesus did not ADD on to the original ten commandments. What He did was replace the original TEN commandments with only ONE.

Some time ago I was using an old computer to do all of my writing and desktop publishing. With all of the new technology that has been on the market I found that my old computer was not meeting my needs. I began to pray and trust God for a new computer. Finally, the Lord blessed me with the money to buy it. When I bought the new computer I no longer had need of my old obsolete one so I got rid of it.

My new computer replaced my old computer because I no longer had need of the old one. The new command that Jesus gave replaced the old commandments that God gave to Moses:

 

The ten commandments as well as the rest of the Old Testament law was a burden that no one could bear (Acts 15:5-10). Those under the Old Testament did not attempt to keep the commandments because they wanted to. They attempted to keep the commandments from fear of the consequences for disobedience.

Under the New Testament, our obedience to Christ is not motivated by fear but by love (1 John 4:18). You see, if I am walking in the supernatural, divine, God kind of love then I will never commit adultery because it causes pain to my wife and perhaps to the husband of the wife that I am committing adultery with.

If I am walking in this love I would never kill you, lie on you, steal from you, or covet anything you have. Jesus would never do this and if I am walking in the same kind of love that He has, neither will I. Romans 13:10 says that Love worketh no ill to his neighbour.

By following this ONE commandment I will have no desire to break any other commandment. Therefore, no other commandment is needed.

 

 

Chapter Four

 

Walking In Love

 

What do we mean by "walking in love?" This is something else you must understand if you are to obey the commandment of Christ.

First of all, we have continually reminded you that the divine ability to love anyone and everyone is within every born again believer. This love was placed in our heart by the Holy Spirit:

 

Although the Holy Spirit lives in us and has shed the love of God abroad in our hearts, we must still make a quality decision to walk in it. The ability to love anyone from the lovable to those that are diffcult to love is within us. Yet, the Holy Spirit is not going to make us do it.

Because of the ability that God has given us, He has told us that we must walk in love:

 

As we stated before, God will never tell us to do something that is impossible to do. We can walk in love because we have the ability to do it.

Although men seperated Ephesians chapters four and five for reference sake, chapter five is a CONTINUATION of the thought being conveyed in chapter four. The only way to fulfill those things mention in chapter four is to do what was told in chapter five which is to walk in love.

Ephesians chapter five tells us to be followers of God, as dear children. Walking in love will show the world whose children we really are. When people see my oldest daughter they notice that we both have the same mannerisms. We talk and act alike in many ways. There is no mistaking her for being my child.

The same SHOULD be true concerning the children of God. Our natural children inherit many of our abilities. You can say that they have received our nature. As God’s children, we have received His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

As His children we can walk in love towards anyone in any circumstance:

 

Notice the statement in verse 45: "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." Loving our enemies and praying for them is will prove to ourselves and to others that God is our Father because His love for all mankind is in us (John 3:16). Did not God love us when we were still His enemies (Rom. 5:8-10)?

Therefore if we are now the children of God then it only stands to reason that we will emulate our Father. Satan’s children emulate their father by expressing hatred towards their enemies (John 8:44; 1 John 3:15). We emulate our father by walking in love.

I will admit that this is not always easy. The "flesh" or the "old nature" wants to rise up in us when we are wronged. Just as many of us still face the temptation to drink, smoke, and commit adultery, we are still tempted to hate our enemies.

All fleshly desires are overcome by walking in the Spirit:

 

The Spirit is the One who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. Therefore, by walking in the Spirit, we are walking in love.

The word "walk" is an archaic word which means, "To order one’s behavior; practicing the principles that we learn from the Word of God."

Walking also implies taking things "step by step." Sometimes as Christians we learn some truth from God’s Word that we have not heard before and we try to jump right into it. Many Christians find that this does not work and become discouraged.

We can start by practicing love in our homes. It is very easy to put on two faces: one in the home and another in the presence of others. However, the home is the most important place to walk in love. We should demonstrate love towards our spouse and our children.

This is especially true if you have unsaved loved ones in your home. By practicing the true love of God towards them we can do a better job of winning them to Christ then we would by preaching to them, begging them to get saved, and quoting Scripture.

When we have learned to walk in love towards our family members then we should practice walking in love towards everyone in the church. Once we have learned to walk in love in those areas then we will be better prepared to deal with those outside the home and outside the church.

Walking in love: take it one step at a time.

Chapter Five

 

How God Taught Me To Walk In Love

 

Many years ago I could hold a grudge against someone for a long time. The person may not ever know that I had the grudge against them. I would forgive them eventually but I was good at holding those grudges.

In 1987 one of the churches in our area was holding a two week missionary school. The first week was class instruction and the second week we went to a small island near Okinawa, Japan to do the work. Some of the members of our church along with myself decided to attend.

There was a certain sister that came along with us. She and I did not get along too well. I fel that this sister went out of her way to provoke me.

One night she and I got into a heated argument. Afterwards she went to take a shower. After taking her shower she came to me and said, "I don’t really want to do this but the Lord told me to ask for your forgiveness for how I have treated you."

Although I told her I forgave her (after all, it was the "Christian" thing to do), I knew that in my heart I did not. I gossiped about her constantly to those who were closest to me. I knew in my heart that this was wrong and I wanted to do something about it. I did not want to feel the way I felt towards her but I did not know what to do.

During this same period I had been reading a book called Authority Of The Believer by Kenneth E. Hagin. This book inspired me to pray the prayers from Ephesians 1:17-23 and 3:14-21 over myself and others.

The part of the two prayers that struck me the most was this one in Ephesians 3:17:

 

I recognized that I was having a problem in this area and wanted very badly to change. I would pray, "Oh God, I want to be rooted and grounded in love."

One day the Lord began to speak to me. He said, "Son, you have been praying to be rooted and grounded in love."

"Yes Lord," I answered Him.

He then told me that I have been having impure thoughts. I did not understand what He meant. He told me that I have been allowing thoughts of malice and hatred towards other brothers and sisters to enter into my mind and I had been entertaining them.

The Lord told me read 1 Corinthianss 13:4-5:

 

"Love.....thinks no evil." Although my actions towards this lady and other probably did not meet any of the attributes above, the Lord specifically emphasized the part about love not thinking evil.

I began to see that one of the reasons that I had trouble loving others was because I was thinking evil thoughts concerning them. It’s very hard to walk in love towards someone when you can only think negative about them. Basically, the problem was the battle that was in my mind.

However, the Lord was not finished with me. He had me read Luke 10:27:

 

The God kind of love was already in my heart but it was mind that was causing me problems. I was allowing Satan to plant thoughts of malice and hatred in my mind. It is Satan that does not want God’s people to walk in love towards one another. Yet we can control our thought life:

 

Now I had been taught this truth concerning other areas. For example, if I am believing God for healing, a financial blessing, or anything God has promised me then I must stand on His Word. When thoughts of doubt or unbelief came to my mind then I learned to cast them down. This is because any thought that goes against the knowledge of God’s Word is finds it’s origin with Satan and demons. I learned that I did not have to receive these thoughts.

I wise man once said that you cannot stop someone from knocking on your door but you can determine who you let in. Satan and demons bring thoughts to our minds that are contrary to God’s Word, however, we do not have to accept them. We can cast them down and bring EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ.

God was showing me that this same principle worked in the area of walking in love just as it did for healing and financial blessing. When thoughts of hatred and strife come to our minds concerning any brother or sister in Christ (or any other human being for that matter), we must cast those down as well. We must believe in our hearts what God says about that individual. Walking in love will win the person over.

I no longer allowed myself to have ill feelings towards the sister I mentioned earlier. I began to have good fellowship with this sister until the time she left. Whenever the devil would tempt me to hate someone, carry on a grudge, or seek and opportunity to avenge myself of a hurt I would simply say, "No devil, I refuse to do that. I’m going to walk in love."

However, the devil will try you in this area. The Christian must remember that he or she is in a spiritual warfare and no blessing from God comes easy. They are freely given through grace but they still must be fought for. This includes walking in love.

It was not too long after God taught me this that my wife became pregnant with our second child. We were scheduled to attend a briefing at the hospital along with other expectant mothers. When we got there I spotted a woman and her teenage daughter that attended our church. I knew the woman was to old to be pregnant so I guessed that it was here daughter.

Both this woman and her daughter had criticized me in the past concerning the way I raised my daughter and other issues. I had held a grudge against them for a long time until God had given me the insight that I just shared with you.

When I saw them the devil began to speak, "Well lookkee here. The very person that tells you how to raise YOUR child could not even keep hers from fornicating. What are you going to do about this?"

I said very quietly, "Devil, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do about this: I’m going to walk in love."

After the briefing was over I went to embrace the child. I sat down with her and assured here that she need not feel embarrassed because I knew. I talked to her about the love and forgiveness of God. I even shared with her some of the ugly details of my past and how God forgave and delivered me.

From that time forward this family and I became the best of friends. I was invited to her high school graduation and I cheered the loudest.

This family left Okinawa but returned several years later. When the mother came back the first thing she did was come to my house. She showed me pictures of her precious granddaughter, which by the way, was as pretty as it’s mother.

The love of God turns enemies into friends and puts a bullet in the heart of the devil. His love has been shed abroad in our hearts. Let us learn to walk in it.

E-mail: victoryword@yahoo.com

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