Nov 27, 2019 3 min

In the past couple of newsletters, we looked at the importance of holiness. Among other things, we established two truths about holiness that are vitally important. First, we determined that holiness simply means to be set apart or separated unto God. In other words, holiness simply means acting like God all the time. As such, it is a matter of how we conduct ourselves in everyday living. Secondly, we determined that holiness is made possible by righteousness, which is an inborn characteristic of born-again believers. In simple terms, that means that every Christian can walk—and is expected to walk—consistently in holiness. This week, we want to look at a specific aspect of walking in holiness: love. If holiness means conducting ourselves as God would and if God is love, then there is no greater way to express holiness than walking in love.

Love has its greatest expression in the midst of opposition; therefore, it is never an automatic response of our flesh. On the contrary, we must deliberately take advantage of every opportunity to walk in love. And let’s face it: every single one of us is confronted everyday with more opportunities than we care for to walk in love. Every time we refuse to take advantage of those opportunities, we turn down the chance to walk in holiness. When we do that, we are also resisting the prospect of exhibiting to sinful humanity God’s perfect will (see Romans 12:1, 2). So then the bottom line is that we must walk in love, whether we want to or not. And lest you are tempted to delegate the responsibility to love to people whom you deemed more spiritually capable than yourself, consider Romans 5:5b: “…the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” Paul was addressing all Christians when he made that statement, and what he was saying emphatically is that we are all capable of and therefore responsible for loving exactly the way God loves. So away with your excuses and determine, once and for all, that you will walk in love. However, you can’t walk in love if you don’t know what love is. Let’s therefore look at I Corinthians 13 for some definitions. “Love is patient and kind.” Based on that definition alone, many Christians fail the love test. Every single day, we must be patient with people, with situations, and even with God. One thing you must absolutely understand about being patient is that it does not mean simply enduring. It means enduring with the right attitude, an attitude of faith, thanksgiving, and expectation—i.e., enduring without complaining. It’s means being consistently kind to people who are not necessarily kind to us. What an awesome testimony we would be at work, with our unbelieving family members, and in our community if we would just walk consistently in this aspect of love. Many of us eagerly witness to others with our words, as we should. However, when our love walk is lacking, it seriously impacts our witness. People (especially unbelievers!) don’t care as much about what you say as what you do. The passage continues, “Love is not jealous…does not demand its own way.” Once someone was selected over me for a promotion. While that wounded my flesh, I determined to have the love response. I refused jealousy. I resisted demanding my own way. And you know what: I liked it! It did me a lot of good! For now, will you decide to take love as the pathway to holiness? Believe me, you’ll be glad you did. Be Blessed and may You continue to hear His Voice.