2. THE CAUSE OF LOVE. Since we are by nature a selfish rather than a God-honoring people, how do we expect to manifest and maintain a life of love for someone other than ourselves? Love for God comes from God Himself. It is the “fruit of the Spirit," meaning that it is only by the power of God that we can live the kind of life that He deserves and demands. “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).
Other people are not always easy to love. But the Bible teaches that if we are truly the people of God, then we will manifest love to others. “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.” ( 1 John 2:5). To love others is to love God. It is to obey God. It is to honor Him with our lives. And it is good indeed to know that love is the product of God’s power in our lives. The love of God is “poured” out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). We are not called to love with agape love by our own strength. With this, as with everything else that Christians are to do, we can depend upon the power of God.
3. THE CONSEQUENCE OF LOVE God’s blessings are promised to those who love Him and serve Him with their whole hearts. “That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deut. 30:20). “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deut. 7:9)
We may be certain that God recognizes and rewards those who love Him. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28). There are only two kinds of people in the world from God’s perspective—those who love Him and those who do not. “The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Psa. 145:20).