Devotion 13 – Growing in Love
The most important aspect of spiritual growth in our personal life is to grow in the love of God – loving God and loving people. But very often, we tend to concentrate on the 'What and How’ to do ministry more effectively but are not mindful that the 'Why' actually determines both the success and the eternal impact of our ministry.
The Scriptures caution us that it is possible to do ministry without the pure motivation of love for God even when in sharing the Good news of the Gospel.
Phil.1:15-17 - “Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love…”
We are also warned that everything that is not done out of the motivation of love will be consumed in the light of eternity (1Cor.3:1-3; 3:12-15). None of us wants to waste our time in doing something for years and find out in eternity that all the work is considered nothing because our motivation was for self-glory, self-sustenance, etc.
If we are feeling frustrated, irritated, burned out and depressed in ministry, then something is not right. We probably have lost our equilibrium and the only way to restore it is to get back into the love of God.
Growing in Love Through Giving Love
Jn.15:1-6 – “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit… 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
When we think of judgment, we usually associate it with sin. However, in this passage, we are warned that judgment can come even through an unfruitful life. However, the good news is, bearing fruit is not our responsibility, only abiding is. In this passage, Jesus provides us the methodology for all the commandments to be fulfilled in Him. In fact, all the commandments of Christ and of the righteous principles of the Bible are possible only in the following manner:
1. We must be in Him – Receiving
2. We must grow in Him – Abiding
3. We must bear fruit in Him – Giving
“Being” comes before “growing”, which will then lead to “doing”; and everything must be done in Him. We must be in His love, grow in His love before we can love as He loved. We must be in His life, grow in His life before we can serve through Him. So, the progress will always be in cycles of being, growing and doing.
Jesus gave us the commandment “love one another as He loved us” because this is the ultimate purpose of receiving His love and life. We who have discovered His love through grace must not stop at the receiving level, we must grow and progress until we are so full of His love that we start giving out His love through our lives.
This giving out of His love through us can begin in small ways through our caring and serving. As we are faithful, our giving will increase until every thought, every inspiration, every purpose in our life is just purely filled with desires and intentions to find more and more ways to give of our lives to others.
Acts 20:35 – “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’”.
The world measures success by how much we have received and acquired, but God measures success by how much we give. For that reason, the poor widow can be more blessed than the rich Pharisees because she (in terms of percentage) gave much more.
This principle does not just apply to finances alone, but it applies to every area of life. As we forgive, we receive forgiveness. As we love, we experience love. As we help, we receive help. As we teach, we are taught by the Lord. As we bless others, we are blessed. We can even go as far as to say, it is more blessed to love than to be loved – for to be loved is to be like a child of God but to love is to be like God Himself. And it is never possible to out-give God, and never possible to out-love God; for when we love, the measure of love will always be measured back to us and we never run out of love.
To the measure in which you are willing to surrender your whole life, that is the measure He will take your life and pour His love into you. Thus, if we want to grow more in Him, we will have to give more of ourselves to Him and to others through His love. The more we give of ourselves, the more we will increase and grow in Him.
However, do not overdo it beyond our conscience or the measure of our faith, but gradually increase the giving of our love and of our life, measure by measure.
1 Tim.1:19 – “having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck…”
Do not overstretch ourselves but rather, like the branch on the vine, just grow steadily with each fruiting and pruning season. Growth is achieved in step by step incremental amounts. Remember, our doing must always come from our receiving and abiding.