Thursday: You Have Freely Received; Freely Give
Daily Lesson for Thursday 9th of January 2025
Just as the servant could never repay his debt to his master, we can never repay God. We could never earn or merit God’s love. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NKJV). What amazing love! As 1 John 3:1 puts it, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (NKJV).
However, what we can and should do is to reflect God’s love to others as much as we possibly can. If we have received such great compassion and forgiveness, how much more should we bestow compassion and forgiveness on others? Recall that the servant forfeited his master’s compassion and forgiveness because he failed to bestow them on his fellow servant. If we truly love God, we will not fail to reflect His love to others.
Read John 15:12, 1 John 3:16, and 1 John 4:7-12. What do these passages teach about the relationship between God’s love, our love for God, and love for others?
Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com
Just after John 15:12, Jesus told His disciples, “ ‘You are My friends if you do whatever I command you’ ” (John 15:14, NKJV). And what did Jesus command them? Among other things, Jesus commanded them (and us) to love others even as He loved them. Here and elsewhere, the Lord commands us to love God and to love one another.
In short, we should recognize that we have been forgiven an infinite debt, one that we can never repay, a debt paid only at the cross for us. Therefore, we should love and praise God and live with love and grace toward others. As Luke 7:47 teaches, the one who is forgiven much loves much, but “ ‘to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little’ ” (NKJV). And who among us doesn’t realize just how much he or she has been forgiven?
If to love God entails that we love others, we should with urgency share the message of God’s love, both in word and in deed. We should help people in their daily lives here and now, and also seek to be a conduit of God’s love and point people to the One who offers them the promise of eternal life in a new heaven and a new earth—an entirely new creation from this world, which is so marred and ravaged by sin and death, the doleful fruits of rejecting God’s love.
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What specific steps can you take to love God by loving others? What could you do today and in the coming days to show people God’s love and (eventually) invite them to enjoy what it means to have the promise of eternal life? |
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When he wrote these words, Hadumat Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai was a Jewish Rabbi living in Worms, Germany. That same year the Crusaders swept through and killed every Jew in the town,
Many of us are familiar with these words because they were included in a 1917 hymn called " The Love of God." It was written by Frederick Lehman, a Christian minister in Pasadena, California, who was down on his luck and working as a packer in a citrus processor.
They are beautiful words but when we stop to think about the love of God, all the words are meaningless if we do not put the power of God's love in our actions towards others. That the love of God is either misunderstood or ignored in our time is exacerbated by the hypocrisy of Christians who talk about the love of God and who act selfishly. God does not need us, but he wants to use us to share his love to others.
"By this shall all men know ..."
Note to self: write less - act more!
The story behind the song is very powerful about the love of God.
Anyone who has suffered overwhelming loss and still sing that song with conviction,is definitely a blessed soul in their upward journey.
Do any of you sympathize a bit with Martha when Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part? Who was supposed to make the food and prepare for the comfort of others if everyone sat at Jesus' feet all the time? Why didn't Jesus tell Mary to go help her sister with the chores?
I think what Jesus was trying to say had to do with this "freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8). We can't "freely give" (give without resentment) if we haven't first freely received from Jesus. Our giving will feel stingy or "off" to others, and be with weariness and frustration on our part, if we're drilling down for some refreshment to share out of a dry well. With this water analogy, I'm picturing the humidifiers I am currently filling all day long to put moisture back into our dry house with the winter heat running all the time. As I'm filling the plastic jug, eventually it is full and the water starts running over the top. The water pouring out as an overflow, THAT is what Martha was to draw from to prepare the meal for her guests. If she had spent enough time with Jesus one-on-one first, she would have been full of love and energy, enough to share with others.
Practical application? I'm so tired, and with the exhaustion comes the realization that my service to others is "off". I just asked someone to lead the adult Sabbath School discussion for me this week so that I can go have alone time with Jesus. I'll be free to give again once I've freely received.
The highest calling in Christian life, and perhaps the most challenging one is to love other fellow human beings as God has loved us. The Bible gently reminds us that God has loved us freely and unconditionally even when we did not deserve that “extravagant” love (Romans 5:8. The Bible pleads with us to love one another, and if we do so, we shall have fulfilled all of God’s laws (Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8). How possibly can sinners start loving as God loves? How possibly does loving others with God’s love look like in practical sense?
Transcending above personal self-centeredness, greed, and self-interest is purely the work of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. The capacity to love with God’s love only happens when have totally surrendered to the love of God and the Holy Spirit. This love belongs to God. We must experience it ourselves first (1 John 4:19). We cannot give what we do not have! Only the Holy Spirit who can give us the capacity to love others as God has loved us (Galatians 5: 22-23). In our quest to love others as God has loved us, we need the Holy Spirit to give us humility. Humility is God’s wonderful power to control our self-centeredness. Cultivating humility will be very instrumental in seeing others as worthy to be loved (Philippians 2:3). Seriously, by the grace of God (Holy Spirit), may we consider forgiving others even as we make serious attempts to love them (Colossians 3:13).
Loving others as God has loved us should be tangible, visible, and meaningful. Our love for others must translate into kindness, forgiveness, compassion, patience, caring and generosity. We cannot claim to love others and yet do nothing. For instance, Jesus said, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). God’s love has got power to do the impossibles.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13)
Thank you, Omwenga for sharing. When you wrote "we cannot give what we don't have", it reminded me of the poor widow in Mark 12:43,44. Jesus said that they gave of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - "all that she had" to live on.
We need ask of the Holy Spirit so we can learn to have the love of Jesus to give our all to Him and others He graciously allows us to encounter.
Love is a mystery. It is also the most powerful energy on this planet. Staying in touch with the source of love is the safest place to be and the best way to share it.
1 John 4:9---We are to "Live" through Jesus not "Die" through Him!
God's love never fails, my love for him and for my fellow man often fails. Lord forgive me for not loving you as you deserve to be loved by me. Help me and we, to see ourselves and others through your eyes of love. Help us to see Jesus in them. As we have done, or not done unto others, we have done, or not done unto you.
God doesn't want our lip service and will test us to see if we mean what we say. I had such a test today. As I drove into the gas station I noticed him there in the road by the stop sign, holding a sign that read, "homeless, anything will help." I instantly smiled and thought that's you, isn't it, Lord? I couldn't pass him by on my way out to resume my journey down the highway, without giving something. As I pulled up to the stop sign I lowered my windows and extended my hand to give him some money. I was immediately struck by the clean cut beard and moustache, he had the kindest eyes, and wore a hooded jacket. He also had a friendly small dog, it looked like a Jack Russell Terrier. As he received my gift he smiled and said, "Thank you! God bless you!" I returned the blessing and was on my way.
Did you know that Jesus was disguised as a homeless man, and he has a friendly small dog? Neither did I until, today.
Dear Tim,
Did you mean Jesus had a friendly small dog? Sir, help me, where did you get this interesting information from?
I am not Tim but I notice that Jesus said this!
... if Jesus identifies with the least, I am sure he identifies with the homeless who have small friendly dogs.
We have freely received God’s Love, and are now able to freely share this Love in all its forms with others. I want to explore what God’s Love means to the individual believer. Each of us can identify personal issues that God has helped or continues to help us with, but I want to go deeper. I want to understand what His unique form of Love — Agape — has accomplished in us and for us when accepted wholeheartedly.
What has God’s freely offered and by the believer freely accepted Love liberated us from? Do we truly comprehend what it means to “receive His Love freely” and how this divine gift sets transformative forces in motion? Beyond freeing us from sin, guilt, shame, and broken-heartedness, God’s Love also liberates us emotionally, spiritually, and practically.
Has He not freed us from the fear of being taken advantage of, enabling us to love others selflessly, therefore freely? Has His Love not freed us from the fear that, left to our own devices, we constantly search for means to protect our interests because no one else will? Has He not freed us from the fear of poverty, being falsely accused, and even the fear of death itself?
When we wholeheartedly accepted God’s Love, we were freed to embrace His Love instead of fear; freed from worrying about protecting ourselves and our material interests. It is time for us to rely and trust in God’s providence. His constant, unrelenting Love assures us that He governs our lives according to His Wisdom as we live by faith to freely engage in caring for and sharing with others.
We would not have this motivation to relinquish our sense of self-preservation if it had not been replaced by something infinitely better and more effective — His unwavering commitment to never leave or forsake us. As Heb.13:5-6 and Deut.31:6-8 remind us - His Covenant Promises are now the foundation of life for all who love Him and found in Jesus Christ, empowering us to live by faith and love without fear.
Brigitte, God's Word is true, "perfect love casts out fear." It frees us from living or reacting out of fear.
I don't mean to be too critical of the lesson because the message in it is very important, but I'm not really sure that pep talks to get people to love more are really the answer. If you're forcing yourself to do "loving things" because you're a Christian and you'd better do it, I wonder how loving it really is. We've all seen people serving God and being nasty about it.
I guess for all of us, if we don't feel much love for others, it's a good time to do an assessment. It's likely we aren't actually experiencing God's love like we should. The solution is not to try harder to be loving. We can't actually be loving on our own. Yes, we can be nice to people to look good or just to be polite or whatever, just as Jesus said the pagans did. But true love comes from God and we need to tap into that source if it is lacking. When we're connected, the love will flow out more and more. We won't have to "try harder."
That doesn't mean we don't need reminders about love like the passage in I John today. We can get busy and not think about showing God's love as we could. But as we plan ways to love others, let's never forget the Source.
Amen, Christina! I'm reminded of the metaphor Jesus gave us of the Vine and the branches. The work of the branches is to "remain in the Vine" (John 15:4). He says very clearly, "No branch can bear fruit of itself." He tells us to remain in Him (John 15:5), that is our only job. Without Him we can do NOTHING. You said it also, "When we're connected, the love will flow out more and more. We don't have to 'try harder'." So the fruit happens as we receive nourishing love from Jesus.
And another thing, the branches don't keep track of who is eating their fruit. Sometimes we have a mindset of "I helped x number of people today". However, in the Vine-branches metaphor, passersby take the fruit off the branches and the branches are not even aware of who is picking and eating. The branches are too busy spreading out to capture more "Sonlight", too busy carrying the nutrients that they are receiving, which then bust out into fruits. Biblical examples... The Good Samaritan helped a man who was not on his "to-do" list for the day. The woman who gave her last pennies and the publican praying were bearing fruits that others were eating and they were likely not even aware of it.