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Editorial
Alwyn Thomson
Comment:
Failed Politics?
Norman Hamilton
From
the Director: Words and Deeds
David W Porter
Loyalism
and Me
Philip Rankin
Real
Life
David Campton
Policing
Matters
Sam Pollock
The
Crisis Within
Eddie
Kinner
Loyalism
- The Issues
Mervyn Gibson
Scapegoating
Billy Mitchell
Review...Beyond
Retribution
Stephen Graham
Down
to Basics
Malachy
O'Doherty
Faith
in the Future
David
W Porter
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 1: Love
Exodus
34:6f
Leviticus
19:18 & 34
Deuteronomy
6:4f
Deuteronomy
10:17-19
Proverbs
10:12
Proverbs
17:9
Jeremiah
31:3
Matthew
5:43-48
Luke
6:27-36
Luke
10:25-37
John
13:34f
Romans
5:6-8
Romans
12:9
Romans
13:8-10
1
Corinthians 13:1-13
Galatians
6:2 & 10
1
Peter 2:17
1
Peter 4:8
1
John 3:18 & 23
1
John 4:7-12
FOR GOD AND HIS
GLORY ALONE
Biblical Principles
Study 1
LOVE
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind;and your neighbour as yourself"
Luke 10:27
"Whoever does not love does not know God,for God is love".
1 John 4:8
GOD IS LOVE, and if we do not love, we cannot claim to know Him. This love is to be pre-eminent in the church, and is to be evident in our relationships with our neighbours, irrespective of their culture, religion and background. Distinctively, followers of Jesus are told to love their enemies.
Such love is not
just an emotional feeling, but an active concern for the welfare and good
of others. It must be shown in our attitudes and actions. In showing such
love we reflect God's attitude to us. He showed His love by sending Jesus
while we were still His enemies. We may find it difficult to love our
enemies if they are terrorists, but we can begin by learning to love those
of our neighbours who are from other traditions.
Read Luke 10:25-37. There are two questions in the passage (verses 29 and 36). Notice the difference between the two. By turning the issue around, Jesus presents us with the challenge to be neighbours rather than to debate about whom we ought to consider as our neighbours.
In what ways have evangelicals failed to see the implications of what Jesus is saying to us on this matter? What needs to be done about it?
The key term for love in the New Testament is agape. It has heen described as "the love of the cross" (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10). It is a love towards the undeserving and those who deserve the opposite – a love that reaches the "hard cases" (e.g. in Acts 3:14-26 – those implicated in the death of Jesus and Acts 9 – Saul). What are the implications of agape love in evangelism, social action and politics?
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