and to brotherly kindness, love (2 Peter 1.7)We all think that we know what love is! Better, with humility, to discover from the Bible what God’s idea of love is.
From the life of Jesus:
· Engaging love begins with repentance
Proclaimed by Jesus and John the Baptist, as an OT prophet and preparer for Jesus: Mark 1.1-4; 14-15
Love does not shun the fundamental issue: turning to face up to God, His sovereign Righteousness and the pursuit of Justice being established upon the face of the earth.
There is no true love without the acknowledgement and declaration of God’s love, purposes and plan.
· Jesus’ love is expressed through godliness and community
The 1st thing Jesus establishes is a personal discipline of holy godliness: walking with God in the face of life’s challenges (Mark 1.9-13).
The 2nd thing Jesus establishes is a community of brotherly love (Mark 1.16-17)
This is why the baptistic way emphasises personal discipline and also community. Because it is the Jesus-centred, Biblical way.
· Jesus’ love is shaped by God’s agenda
We don’t see Jesus ‘handled’ by people. Yes, His personal walk with God and the initiative in love that He takes evokes response from among people. But He stays in the driving seat and knows what the focus is: that God’s rule, or Kingdom, be expressed through His life. The agenda is inviting people to turn back to God in repentance (Mark 1.37-42). That is how they find complete healing and deliverance: full salvation.
It is so easy for the outflow of love to be shaped by our flesh, rather than the heart of God, which calls us to conform to who He is, in ‘the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord’.
This is why the process of Peter’s outworking from faith through to love is so importance, both then and now.
Agape is the end product of a shaped, harnessed and disciple-forming process.
Agape is proactive, not simply reactive: it is not triggered by guilt.
Agape is intentional and disciplined: it pursues participation in God’s purposes.
