They will know us By Our Love

This week I read a wonderful post entitled “Got Love?” from In My Father’s House. It was about the importance of love for others, a way to know if we actually know God, that we belong to Him, that we are his children. Here is a sample:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profits me nothing.” (1 Cor.13:1-3)

Are you a “Spirit-filled person? Going to a vibrant Spirit-filled church? The sick are getting healed, demons cast out? That’s great. Do you have prophecies, glory clouds, visions of the Third Heaven? Awesome. Do you think having and defending correct doctrine is important? Cool. Are you all about social justice? Feeding the poor? Making the world “a better place?” That’s wonderful. Are you willing to die for your faith? Admirable.

But Without God’s love, spiritual power can blow people up. Without God’s love, all our biblical knowledge and defending the “truth” becomes the source of combative spiritual pride and carnal divisiveness. Without God’s love, social justice turns into nothing more than self-righteous works to make us feel significant, or worse, ease our guilt. Without God’s love, our martyrdom is nothing more than religious zeal. Without God’s unfailing love, we will fail.

How do we measure spiritual maturity?

What if spiritual maturity was not measured by our Bible knowledge, our training, our spiritual gifts, our willingness to serve, our zeal, our charisma, but was totally based on our ability to receive God’s love and give it away?

What if it was based on how well we’ve been able to enlarge our heart (open the “faucet” of our heart) to receive more of this unending ocean of God’s love living inside of us right now? Do you understand that if we don’t know how to open our heart to receive His unconditional love, and give it away unconditionally, we can’t be trusted? . . . ”

It’s certainly a challenging post and worth reading all of it: http://melwild.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/got-love/
It reminded me of the challenge of a song we use at church, BY OUR LOVE by Christy Nockels.
You can listen and read through the lyrics below. I trust you will find it helpful. Here is the chorus:

The time is now, Come Church arise
Love with His hands, See with His eyes
Bind it around you, Let it never leave you,
And they will know us by our love.

BY OUR LOVE

Brothers, let us come together
Walking in the Spirit, there’s much to be done
We will come reaching, out from our comforts
And they will know us by our love

Sisters, we were made for kindness
We can pierce the darkness as He shines through us
We will come reaching, with a song of healing
And they will know us by our love!

The time is now, Come Church arise
Love with His hands, See with His eyes
Bind it around you, Let it never leave you,
And they will know us by our love.

Children, You are hope for justice
Stand firm in the Truth now, set your hearts above
You will be reaching, long after we’re gone
And they will know you by your love!

You can look up sheet music here: http://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/songdetail.aspx?iid=1052518