SUPERIORITY:" ALWAYS" EXHIBITS THE MOST SUPREME CHARACTER TRAIT: LOVE

                              

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  SUPERIORITY: ALWAYS INCLUDES LOVE!

“…GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD…” (John 3:16 KJV).

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Christianity is a religion of LOVE. “…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). Christianity started BECAUSE of LOVE. “…God SO LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV).

“…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). God didn’t REQUIRE you to love him before choosing to love you. ^“HEREIN IS LOVE, NOT that we loved God, but that HE LOVED US and sent His Son to be the propitiation (substitute, intervention) for our sins.” (1 John 4:10 KJV). “…This is REAL LOVE—NOT that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins…” (1 John 4:10 NLT). “…THIS IS LOVE: NOT that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…” (1 John 4:10 NIV).

“…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). God doesn’t BENEFIT or profit from loving you. “…God demonstrates his …love for us in this: While we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us…” (Romans 5:8 KJV). “…God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were STILL sinners...” (Romans 5:8 NLT).

“…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). God doesn’t require your love in return in order to love you. God doesn’t benefit (profit) from loving you, but loves you anyway. “…There is no greater love …” (John 15:13 NLT).

Human love usually requires love in return. Would you love someone if they didn’t love you back? Human love usually wants to benefit or profit from loving others. Would you love someone if you didn’t get anything out of it?

God loves like that. It’s called unconditional love. You don’t have to do ANYTHING to deserve his love, to be worthy of it, or earn it, yet he demonstrates his LOVE for you WITHOUT a single requirement on your part. “…Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were STILL sinners…” (Romans 5:6-8 NLT).

“What kind of LOVE is this?” “…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). LOVE is who God is at his very core. Love is God’s MOST GLORIOUS supernatural "SUPERIOR" trait!!!

God absolutely loves you without a single requirement from you and without a personal benefit to himself. “…This is real love—NOT that we loved God, but that he loved us …” (1 John 4:10 NLT).

TRULY meditate on that. IF LOVE IS THE MOST "SUPERIOR" TRAIT; WHAT IS HATE?

“…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). God’s love is not insecure and therefore, needs nothing from you. God’s love does not have low self-esteem and therefore needs no validation from you.

God’s love is only concerned with expressing love to you and not whether you are expressing love BACK to him. “…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). Love’s only agenda is love.

This is what I have personally learned about God’s love: God’s love covers over a lot of offenses. His love is fully forgiving and doesn’t keep a record of our wrongs towards him. His love is enduring. His love suffers long, because it gives you sufficient chances to get it right with him. God’s love is faithful. God’s love is loyal. God’s love involves a sacrifice and therefore is costly to Him. His love continues, even if it does not receive anything in return. God’s love does not come with a wage attachment, where you have to earn it. God’s love does not come with a partiality tag, where you have to be worthy of it. God’s love does not come with a merit tag, where you have to be deserving of it. God’s love is free towards everyone and will not demand anything in return. God’s love won’t change, even if you change, walk away, reject it, follow after another, are unfaithful, offend, or totally forget about Him.

“…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). “…There is no greater love …” (John 15:13 NLT). “…This is real love…” (1 John 4:10 NLT). What is “real” love?

God’s “real” “…;LOVE is patient, [God’s REAL]…love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [God’s REAL]…love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, [God’s REAL]…love never fails…” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 NIV).  

Nothing will ever separate you from God’s “real” love. “….neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate [you]… from the love of God which is “in” Christ Jesus our Lord…” (Romans 8:38-39 KJV).

“Real” love is God. “…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). God’s “real” love desired to love you on purpose. “…God SO LOVED…” (John 3:16 KJV). However, there was a barrier of sin between you and God. “… [your] … iniquities…separated [you]… from God… …” (Isaiah 59:2 KJV).

Sin is punished by death.   “…All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23). “…the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23 KJV).

God decided a blood “atonement” was necessary for the remission of sin. In the Old Testament animal sacrifices provided a temporary remission for sins. “…almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission…” (Hebrews 9:22 KJV).

The shedding of blood was God’s chosen method to act as an atoning sacrifice for the remission of sins. “….without shedding of blood [there]…is no remission…” (Hebrews 9:22 KJV).

The atoning sacrifices, in the Old Testament, were animals and were temporary and limited. “…For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul…” (Leviticus 17:11 KJV).

However, animal sacrifices, for that time frame, satisfied God’s requirement as an atoning sacrifice to cover the sins of the people. The animal sacrifices, however, had to be repeated over and over every year. “…For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…” (Hebrews 10:1-4 NASB).

Animal sacrifices were only a shadow of the atoning sacrifice that was to come through Jesus Christ “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.  Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…” (Hebrews 10:1-4 NASB).

Sin continued to separate God from the people he desired to love. “… [their] … iniquities (sin) …separated [them]… from … God… …” (Isaiah 59:2 KJV).

God desired to love the world and wanted a relationship with THEM. Eventually, he sent Jesus Christ to become the permanent atoning sacrifice in order to remove the barrier of sin that separated humanity from God.

Jesus became the atoning sacrifice that took away the barrier of sin. “…Behold the Lamb of God, which TAKETH AWAY the sin of the world” (John 1:29 KJV). He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins…” (1 John 2:2 NIV). “…Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son...” (1 John 4:10 KJV). 

God loved THE WORLD so much he didn’t even spare Jesus from suffering on the cross. “…God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” (John 3:16 KJV). God “…spared not his own Son, [from suffering,] but delivered him up for us all….?” (Romans 8:32 KJV).

Jesus became the way to bring us BACK to God’s love. “…Christ …suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us [BACK]… to God…” (1 Peter 3:18 KJV).

God personally chose YOU through Jesus….to love. You need no requirement and God receives no benefit or profit from loving you. However, God chooses you anyway.

God would have sent Jesus, if there was nobody on earth but YOU. God chose YOU to be his very own. "…You did not choose me but I chose YOU, and appointed you....” (John 15:16 ASV).

God’s love chooses YOU without your influence or input. It is important for you to know that God chose you; you didn’t choose Him (John 15:16). “…I chose YOU....” (John 15:16 ASV). “I will show mercy to anyone I CHOOSE, and I will show compassion to anyone I CHOOSE.” So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it…” (Romans 9:14-16 NLT).

He chose you to love you, to remove the barrier of sin, and restore a covenant relationship with YOU.

You simply ACCEPT OR REJECT HIS OFFERING OF LOVE by faith. Your response of faith puts you in the category with his chosen people.  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”( John 1:12). ^“…You are a chosen people…” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV).

God said about Israel, his chosen people in the Old Testament, “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth…” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

The Old Testament teaches you about God’s attitude about his chosen people, Israel. “…For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning…” (Romans 15:4 KJV). “…and they are written for our admonition (warning)…” (1 Corinthians 10:11 KJV).

The bottom line is that…….God chooses YOU to love!! “…I chose YOU....” (John 15:16 ASV). He has “….loved [you]...with an everlasting love….” (Jeremiah 31:3 KJV). There is “…[No]….greater love…than this…”(John 15:13 KJV).

Most people have never been loved without something being required of them. Hardly anybody loves another person without benefiting or profiting in some kind of way. There is “…[No]….greater love…than [God’s love]…”(John 15:13 KJV).“…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV).

God’s kind of love is different from human love. “… My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways MY WAYS…..as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than you ways and my thoughts than your thoughts…” (Isaiah 55:8-9 ASV).

The main focus is that God chose YOU to love on purpose. There is NO requirement on your part, BUT TO ACCEPT IT. God gets NO benefit from loving you. “…God is LOVE…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). God’s love is unconditional love. “….Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true…THINK ON THESE THINGS…” (Philippians 4:8 KJV).

We have been discussing God’s choosing to love you, unconditionally, on purpose. Hopefully you’ve discovered his love doesn’t require anything from you nor does God benefit or profit from loving you.

God’s love is a settled truth or fact. God’s love is without doubt or question. However, what is your participation; if any? 

Your participant involves a RESPONSE of faith.

There is NO requirement on your part to be privy to his love. God gets absolutely no benefit or profit from loving you. “…God SO LOVED…” (John 3:16 KJV).  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast…” (EPHESIANS 2:8-9 KJV).

You, on the other hand, are REQUIRED to response (ACCEPT ) by faith in order to receive the BENEFITS or PROFITS of God’s love. . “…IT SHALL BE DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH…” (MATTHEW 9:29 NASB).  “…[God, through Christ]… freely give us all things?...” (Romans 8:32 KJV). “…For all things are your's [in Christ]…” (1 Corinthians 3 KJV).

The bible says we love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). “…We love, BECAUSE he first loved us…” (1 John 4:19 ASV). “No one can come to me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him…” (John 6:44 KJV). Could it be that God chooses you to love and draws you to himself to enable you to choose him and be drawn to him?

It is up to you to CHOOSE to respond (ACCEPT) by faith. “… [GOD]…dealt to every man THE MEASURE OF FAITH...” (Romans 12:3 KJV). “…WALK BY FAITH...” (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV). “…IT SHALL BE DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH…” (MATTHEW 9:29 NASB). “…The only thing that counts is FAITH expressing itself through love…” (Galatians 5:6 NIV). ). ^“…It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13 NIV).

The ONLY criterion for God choosing you to love is His personal choice to do it. “…He first loved us…” (1 John 4:19 ASV). “….not that we loved God, but that he loved us…” (1 John 4:10 KJV). “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16).

You met no special criteria for being chosen to love. Therefore, the bottom line is that God chose YOU to love.

You have nothing to do with being chosen by God. "You did not choose me but I chose you…” (John 15:16 ASV).  God is the Chooser.

However, in order to partake in his love for you a respond (ACCEPTANCE) of faith is required. When you respond by faith you are basically saying God I believe you chose me simply because you love me and no other reason. I accept your gift of love by faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the [FREE]…gift of God…” (EPHESIANS 2:8-9 KJV).  

The hardest part is accepting such a profound depth of love by faith. Once you truly get a revelation of his lovingly choosing you to love; without requirement or benefit; all his others promises become easier to trust.

All his promises are yes and amen in Christ. “…As many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes …also … Amen …” (2 Corinthians 1:2 NASB). God will keep every one of them because he chooses to love you in that way and you believe it. “…He has granted to [you]… His precious and magnificent promises…” (2 Peter 1:4 NASB). “…IT SHALL BE DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH…” (MATTHEW 9:29 NASB).

The way God loves you, unconditionally, from the beginning NEVER changes or reduces in intensity. “…I am the Lord, I change NOT…” (Malachi 3:6 KJV).  ^“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 NIV).

Therefore, your response of faith ALWAYS has the same opportunity. “…IT SHALL BE DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH…” (MATTHEW 9:29 NASB).

God counts your actions as righteousness when they are done by FAITH. “…Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness…” (James 2:18-24 NIV). Therefore, “…walk by faith...” (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV). Because, “….without faith it is impossible to please God…” (Hebrews 11:6 KJV). “…This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29 KJV).

You can’t earn God’s love, favor, or blessings. You can’t make yourself deserving of them. You can’t become worthy of them. You can, however, BELIEVE. Because of God’s love for you and your response of faith; all his promises are YES and AMEN. “…As many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes …also … Amen …” (2 Corinthians 1:2 NASB). “…IT SHALL BE DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH…” (MATTHEW 9:29 NASB).

God’s love chose you without a requirement and without gleaning a benefit. The reason “God chose you” is important because this is where the loving relationship begins.  “..he hath made us accepted in the beloved…” (Ephesians 1:6 KJV).  “…he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17 KJV).

Normally, people with two extreme or contrary orientations would most likely NOT choose each other to be in a loving relationship. When God chooses man to love; man does not share the same holy orientation as God.  “…the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17).Yet God chose YOU.

Man’s orientation is identified by “… sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies…” (Galatians 5:19-21 NIV). In addition, it is identified through acts of …“Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,” (Galatians 5:19-21 KJV).

“…And [sometimes]… although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32 NASB). Their hearts are often defiled with “….evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies…” (Matthew 15:19 KJV).

There is obviously a barrier of sin between God and man. The question begs; “…What fellowship hath righteousness (God) with unrighteousness (You)...?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 KJV). Without God; humans “only” have a propensity for sin.

God’s holy orientation is identified as “...holiness...” “…righteousness…” “…peace…” “…truth…” “…pure thoughts…” ...life….” “…purity…” “…wealth….”….light….” “….Holy love…” “…stability…” “….sovereign…” “….goodness…” “….wisdom…” “..ever-present…” …cleanliness…” “…mercy…” “…grace…” “…forgiveness….” “faithfulness…” “…Holy Spirit power…” “…joy…” “…just…” “…majestic…” 

The angels in heaven call out to one another saying, “….holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is filled with his glory… (Isaiah 6:3 KJV). 

“…..O Lord… for thou ONLY art holy….” (Revelations 15:4 KJV). A holy orientation and a sinful orientation are contrary to one another.

Most people would NOT “knowingly” choose to love someone who had an orientation that was so different it automatically spelled disaster. “…What fellowship hath righteousness (God) with unrighteousness (You)...?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 KJV).

God specifically tells believers not to…”Be … unequally yoked …: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 KJV).

However, the holy God chooses the worst sinners or the worst offenders to love. “…the things which are impossible with men are possible with God…” (Luke 18:27 KJV).

God’s “…..eyes [are too pure] to behold evil [so why does God look] with favor on those ...[with a sinful orientation?]…” AND CHOOSES TO LOVE THEM (Habakkuk 1:13).

When God chooses you to love, you have a sinful orientation. “…God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were STILL sinners” (Romans 5:6-8 NLT).

Therefore, none of us is without sin (Romans 3:10). “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23). “… As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one…” (Romans 3:10).

Like Paul, many of us can confess, “...I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:18-20 KJV).

How is the problem fixed? What happens when a “holy” orientation chooses to love someone with a “sinful” orientation?   “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots [the sinful nature]? then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil…” (Jeremiah 13:23 KJV).

God fixed it by providing a way to remove the barrier of sin. “…I WILL heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them.…” (Hosea 14:4 KJV). “…Christ …. died for sins ONCE for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us …to God…” (1 Peter 3:18 NASB). “…Where sin increase[s], [God’s] ... grace abounded all the more…” (Romans 5:20 NASB). God’s “…grace is sufficient for you…” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB).  His “…Mercy triumphs over judgement.” (James 2:13 NASB).

“…[He] will forgive [you] … [and] …will remember [your]… sins no more…" (Hebrews 8:12 NIV). “[God’s]…love covereth a multitude of sins…” (Proverbs 10:12, 1 Peter 4:8 ASV).

“…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son …” (Romans 5:10 KJV). “…we have now received the reconciliation…” (Romans 5:11 KJV). “…All this is from God, who [chooses to reconcile]… us to himself through Christ…” (2 Corinthians 5:11-21 NIV).

God removed the barrier of sin through Jesus Christ and changed your orientation. You ARE“….a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV).

When God chooses you and you respond by faith; it makes you miraculously anew (2 Corinthians 5:17). “..all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV).

Responding to God’s love by faith means you have, accepted, believed, received, or invited Jesus into your heart as the sacrificial payment for ALL your sins.

When God chooses you and you respond by faith; a divine exchange takes place.  “…old things are passed away, behold all things are new…” (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV).

It is God’s love that started the whole choosing process.  “Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him” (Romans 5:8 MSG).

Also “…This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. (1John 4:10 MSG).

God lovingly and unconditionally chooses you. “…..God so loved … [YOU] that he gave his ONLY…” (John 3:16 KJV).  Access and participation in that Love comes from a response of faith to the finished work of Christ on the cross. “…ye are saved through faith…” (Ephesian 2:8-9 KJV).

Unless you go into the loving relationship with God through faith you won’t be able to enjoy the benefits of his love. God ALWAYS loves you, but you won’t enjoy it without responding by faith. “…whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23 KJV).

Two important things about faith: a.) God gives you a “measure or portion of faith” when you become a new creation and; b.) it’s activated by hearing the word of God (Romans 12:3 and Romans 10:17). Jesus is the Word. Thus faith is activated when it hears Jesus (the Word).

 “…..God hath dealt to every [one of us] the measure of faith.” (Roman 12:3 KJV). “…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Roman 10:17 KJV). “…Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Philippians 2:13; Colossian 3:16 KJV).

The “measure of faith” is gifted to YOU by God in order to enable you to respond to Him. God-given faith is gifted to you in order to experience and receive all of God’s loving benefits, favor, and blessings.

Many times faith doesn’t seem to work. Many believers are having a problem believing the ONLY reason God will keep his promises is because of HIS love for them and their response of faith.

Hopefully, you believe that God chose you. You accept God’s choosing you by responding by faith.

When Believers get a revelation of God’s love, personally, for themselves; they will want others to know that kind of love too.

Christianity is a religion of love.  You will know the disciples of Christianity by the love they have one to another. “…BY THIS SHALL ALL MEN KNOW that ye are my disciples, “if” YE HAVE LOVE ONE TO ANOTHER…” (John 13:35 KJV). “…God is love…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). “…every one that loveth …. KNOWETH God. He that loveth NOT KNOWETH NOT God; for God is love…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV).

Christians hate sin, but they love people, just like God does.  “…Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, HATING THE SINS that contaminate their lives…” (Jude 23 NLT). “…If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a LIAR: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20 KJV).

In order to TAKE Christianity BACK, it must go BACK to LOVE. “…God is love…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV). “…every one that loveth …. KNOWETH God. He that loveth NOT KNOWETH NOT God; for God is love…” (1 John 4:4-8 KJV).