We can only love because God loves us first. He who does not love does not know God, because God is love (I John 4:19, 7). All good things begin with God: "For God so loved the world that… " When we try to love others, or even God himself, without first knowing his love, we are specializing in minors and fall flat on our faces.

LEGALISTIC LOVE THAT STARTS IN YOURSELF ALWAYS FAILS

However, most of the time it is taught that love begins with us, not with God. "You love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then you love others as yourself." Anything that begins with us is legalism, and this definitely begins with us. Yes, Jesus said these words. But he didn’t miss this: he was answering a TRICK question from a LAWYER about the LAW. We are told this in the text itself (Matthew 22:35). Jesus was not preaching the gospel that he came to preach. Instead, he was answering a tricky rebuttal question from a lawyer.

When we live according to the law, which begins with us, with oneself, then we always fail: "There are no righteous, there is not one" (Romans 3:10). The law puts a yoke around our necks that none of us can bear (Acts 15:10). Jesus says, "without me you can’t do anything" (John 15:5).

KEEP YOURSELF IN THE LOVE OF GOD

Jude 1:21 says that we should keep ourselves in the love of God. Only when we experience God’s love each morning before our feet hit the ground can we even begin to love, and even begin to live the Christian life as it should be lived. The Christian life is not our responsibility, but our response to his ability. The Christian life is impossible to live without the power of God in us.

Jesus said of himself that he could not do anything, but he was the Father who did things through him. Acts 2:22 says that God did miracles, signs, and wonders through Jesus. If Jesus totally needed his Father to empower him, how much more do we need the same?

However, when we live according to the law, we start with ourselves and think that we can do things for ourselves. We think that what God requires is our love. It is not. What he wants is his love working through us. I call it ‘used love’. We first use and experience the love of God ourselves, and then we give it to others. This is how the love of God is more powerful.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 describes this: we grow in God’s love until we inflate like a balloon about to burst, and then we abound above all those around us.

We must remain rooted and grounded in the love of God, so that his love may blossom out of us (Ephesians 3:17). We must remain in the love of Jesus (John 15:10). The love of God is the most powerful force that a human being can experience.

KNOWING THE LOVE OF GOD PRODUCES THE POWER OF GOD IN US

The love of God is the center of the New Covenant, in which we must live and minister (II Cor 3:6, Heb 10:9). When we do not live in this evangelical reality, and try to live also through the Old Covenant, the love of God is extinguished in us. Law and love cannot be co-owners. Where the law resides, it will always dislodge the love of God.

The Old Covenant is the ministry of death and damnation (II Cor 3:6, 7). The New Covenant is the ministry of abundant life and righteousness (John 10:10, II Cor 3:9).

Mixing the Old with the New is like putting arsenic in your food.

LIVING IN YOURSELF PREVENTS YOU FROM EXPERIENCING THE LOVE OF GOD

Jesus tells us to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23). Normally we try to flaunt ourselves and live by ourselves. Only when we find ourselves in trouble do we ask God to help us. We believe that we can live in ourselves, independent of God, at least most of the time. It is the same lie that Adam and Eve bought in the Garden of Eden that caused original sin. It is only knowing God’s love for us that prevents us from living in ‘the realm of self’.

FAITH WORKS BY LOVE

Other training sessions will examine other aspects of God’s love. But Galatians 5:6 says: "Faith works by love." This does not mean our human and conditional love, but the divine and unconditional love of God.

When we live in God’s love, all kinds of good things come out of us. Thus says Jude, "Stay in the love of God." Paul says to be rooted and grounded in the love of God. When we live in the love of God, then we experience his abundance and the power of him because we are living in the power of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God (Rom 1,16).

All good things begin and end in God’s love. We must learn to remain in the love of God.