Transcript:

Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to “The Kingdom Perspective”.

God designed us for love and only to the degree we obey that commandment are we truly free.

But this requires work. Loving God and others does not come naturally to our selfish hearts. To become a loving person will mean perseverance, discipline, and training.

Think of it in terms of a musical instrument. For example, playing the cello does not come naturally. And so, if I want the freedom to effortlessly play the cello, then I must restrict my freedom in other areas, so that I can discipline myself to practice the cello.

The same is true spiritually. If my purpose is to love God with my whole being and love my neighbor as myself, this will require great discipline and sacrifice. The freedom to love God and others is not something that is developed overnight.

This is why there are dozens of “one another” commands in Scripture. All of these are aspects of what it means to love, and all of them must be mastered, in order to love freely. Like the cello, you cannot just whimsically pick up the “love command” and expect to obey it perfectly the first time. Practice is required.

Likewise, the Bible suggests we must work on this in the context of a local church—with one another! Love is faithful and doesn’t just bail out as soon as the going gets tough.

Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13).

However, we do fail…and most miserably, we fail to love.

And so, for us to live into this commandment will require practice and discipline.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

~ Hebrews 12:11 (NASB)