Upward Training

Day 2

 Love: The Greatest Power and Person

The Greatest Power

You may have heard it said that love is a verb, that love is action.  This is true…but that is only part of the story.  Love is not presented as something we just do, i.e. “look at this description of love here, look at the way you are living, and adjust the way you are living to be more like this love.”  It is is true that this love is our goal, our aim.  But it simply isn’t the whole story.  What needs to be noted here is that love is personified, treated as a person.  This is a poetic device, but more than just being poetic.  The Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Spirit, personifies love to indicate that the love of which he speaks is not something which we muster up from within ourselves.  It is a love which we must encounter, be overtaken by, a love whose source is from outside of ourselves. 

We know what, actually who this source of love is.  Romans 5:5 tells us that …God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  And Galatians 5:22 tells us that love is an aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit.  We know what love is by the love of God toward us, demonstrated in the giving of Jesus for us (John 3:16; 1 John 4:7-11).  We receive the power to love through the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:13).  Perhaps the greatest expression of this truth is found in Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19, where Paul prays that we will be “apprehended” by the full dimensions of the love of Christ. 

The Greatest Person

Love personified begs for us to try to find a person who truly loves like this.  Could you insert your name into verses 4-7, i.e. John is patient, John is kind, etc.?  How about your spouse’s name?  How about your pastor?  It’s obvious – there is only One Person whose name goes there legitimately.  Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus is….  Likewise, the Holy Spirit is patient, kind, etc.   And the Father is patient, kind, etc.   So loving with a higher love isn’t a matter of mustering up strength and willpower to love.  It is about our relationship with Jesus.  It is about living in and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  It is about living as a beloved child of our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 John 3:1).  Love personified reminds us that love is only truly known and experienced through the Three Persons of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Personal Reflection or Discussion Questions

Read and pray this prayer of Paul from Ephesians 3.  It is a prayer to experience God’s maximum filling of love.    

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.