MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 13, 2024
The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 36
LOVE : THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 9)
The gospel account of the youngest of the first Twelve who eternally bears the eternal distinction as “John the beloved” of Jesus, is unique among the four synoptic gospels in several aspects.
The outstanding ones are : 1) his is the most sublime presentation of the gospel, 2) dwells more fully on the LOVE of the invisible Father, as manifested “to the world, man, and angels,” in and through His “only-begotten,” both, as first, “Son of God” through whom He “created all things by Him and for Him,” and then, “Son of man,” verily God in the flesh, “the second Adam” in the “mystery of the incarnation,”
3) the coming of the Holy Spirit bearing the fulness of the Godhead” but “devoid of the personality of humanity and independent thereof,” as Christ’s only Successor and Vicegerent on earth after His ascension.
As John reveals that “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One” (1 John.5:7), he then writes that “God is LOVE, light, and life.” This is the love that Holy Spirit “bears fruit” in the lives of all true believers in whom He is abiding and dwelling because their “mind is the mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5; ) and care for their “bodies as the temple of God and the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 3: 16, 17; 6:19, 20; 9:27:
Thus the love of the Father is that of the Son and the Holy Spirit. One love divine and excelling, one light of truth, and one life everlasting. We will quote portions of the “little John” epistles, highlighting this “love” and what it does.
“Beloved, let us LOVE one another: for LOVE IS OF GOD; and everyone that loveth is BORN of God, and KNOWETH God. He that loveth NOT knoweth not God: for GOD IS LOVE. In this was manifested the love of God TOWARDS US, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might LIVE through Him. Herein is LOVE, not that we loved God, but that He LOVED US, and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atonement) for our sins. BELOVED, IF GOD SO LOVED US, WE OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. NO MAN HATH SEEN GOD AT ANY TIME [But] IF WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER, GOD DWELLETH IN US, and HIS LOVE IS PERFECTED IN US. Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of HIS Holy] SPIRIT.” 1 John 4: 7-13, KJV.To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.