Dearly Beloved,
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way (1Cor. 12:31)
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy” (1Cor. 13:13 – 14:1)
In the New Testament we find the yardsticks of faith and love established as two main metrics for spiritual growth. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus severally commended or reproved individuals for their faith or lack thereof, and in Luke 10, he categorically declared love to be the great commandment.
In the epistles you find the same sort of emphasis on the virtues of faith and love, with the Pauline epistles focused primarily on establishing the doctrine of faith, and the epistles of John establishing the doctrine of Love.
The epistles open in Romans 1:5 with Apostle Paul’s reference to having received “grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith”, while Apostle John who was the next major contributor to the epistles is regarded widely as the apostle of love because of his vast emphasis and insight on the subject, referring to himself in 3 John as a “lover in truth”.
The epistles generally characterise faith as a ‘means’ and love as an ‘end’ or a destination. Love is both the fabric and the fruit of the spiritual and divine natures, while faith encompasses the spiritual exercise that must be undertaken to achieve such nature or stature.
Christ and God are the two main entities we see revealed and conveyed through the scriptures, and these two entities encompass the spiritual natures which every Christian believer must strive to embody. The end of spiritual journey and exercise is to come into the love nature of Christ and eventually the love nature of God.
When Jesus introduced himself as ‘the way’ in John 14. He said “no man cometh to the father but by me”. This remarkable declaration along with many other such references in the new testament establishes the love nature of Christ as a prerequisite way into the love nature of God.
Paul introduces the love nature of Christ as a “more excellent way” in 1 Corinthians 12, he then goes on in chapter 13 to explain the uniqueness of the Christ love and characterize it as ‘charity’, and in chapter 14 he tells us to “follow after charity”. In Ephesians 3, Paul also establishes the knowledge of the love of Christ in all it’s dimensions as a means to being ‘filled with all the fullness of God”. God is love.
In this year’s Canada Believers’ Convention, by God’s grace and by the help of the Spirit, we will be exploring the dimensions of the love nature of Christ as the excellent way to God.
Conference Details:Date: Thursday, 24 to Saturday, 26 September, 2020
Theme: THE EXCELLENT WAY OF LOVE
Meeting holds ONLINẸ!
Morning Session:
10:00am MST (5:00pm WAT)Evening Session:
6:00pm MST (1:00am next day WAT)
You may share with your circle of influence.
Blessings!
Pst. Jeff Tokurah