Good Morning!

I want to first say it has been a blessing for me to know that some of you feel that these messages on what love is has spoken to your heart at just the right time. Praise the Lord! I pray that you all continue to let God’s word remain in your thoughts and subsequently direct your deeds. 🙂

Psalm 119:11
Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.  

I trust that those of you who are reading these weekly messages are indeed coming to understand how awesome love is. My hope is that with a deeper understanding of these verses on the nature of love, we will be compelled to praise God for His love toward us and to let our own love toward others rise to levels not yet demonstrated. Living life with genuine love is so sweet and joyful!

And so, remembering that we can understand something by considering what it is not, we come to the end of verse five…

1^st Corinthians 13:5b
Love… thinks no evil;

Wow! Now this characteristic of true love speaks to our inner person, to what we think in our thoughts. You know as well as I do that our thoughts cannot be known by any other person unless we give them expression. Well… no other person except God…

Luke 11:17a
But He (Jesus) knowing their thoughts, said to them…

Thus, because no one else on earth can know your thoughts, it is critical and essential that you be true with yourself. Don’t let your pride and guilty conscience or lack of motivation to think deeply keep you from facing the truth of yourself. Okay? Ready?

True love thinks no evil.

Do you see this? True love thinks no evil. This is the Christian standard.

When you consider your own thought patterns in your daily course of life, do you find that place prepared for true love to flourish? Or do you find dirty corners or ugly spots that seem to never go away or get cleaned up?  (And just as frustrating, maybe sometimes it is clean and sometimes it is not.)

In truth, a Christian has the capacity to think no evil by the power of the Holy Spirit residing in them. This is an effect of the transformed inner nature. The Christian can love with a true love… the only question is of duration. How so? The outer carnal flesh remains to stain our feet, as it were… 

John 13:10a
Jesus said to him (Peter), “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet…”

On the other hand, having not been “bathed”, dark and unwashed areas consist of things that prevent your spirit from being clean. Those are the things you know should not be there, and yet there they are. When an inner nature is not clean, one of the consequences is that the conditions for true love are absent because love thinks no evil. I once had some of those dark areas in my soul too. But you know what? Those dark areas can be cleaned up for good through repentance and faith in Christ!

All those dirty and ugly areas, frankly, fall into the category of evil things. It really is perilous to hold on to them! Cast them out like the idols of Baal! If you want them out, you must first consciously and completely repent of them. Then let us plead alongside King David…

Psalm 51:2
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

And a wonder of wonders is that Almighty God is a God who longs to (and delights to) forgive sins…

1^st John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Wow! See how love is really a bellwether? May we all truly love!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim