Here is one more encouragement to you regarding our role on earth today.
 
1 John 4:7–11 (ESV): Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
 
This teaching about love that runs through the entire passage is the bedrock of our ministry to each other and the world.
 
This is the filter through which Jesus will judge your works on earth. As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit says so.
 
Let’s read on…
 
1 John 4:12–17 (ESV): No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
 
The day of judgment exists for everyone, and the evaluation of our life will be based on how we were able to love. How did we love others? How did we receive the transforming love of God in our own lives?
 
The daily perfecting of loving others is exactly what God is wanting to see in our lives.
 
Now, let’s flip back to Matthew 24, notice what is happening to love on earth. Jesus describes a global condition that is very difficult for us to understand.
 
Matthew 24:12 (ESV): And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
 
Love is growing cold because the engine of love is no longer here. The church in her glory loves the way Jesus loves. The expression of the heart of the Father occurs on earth through transformed people. We are the body of Christ; we are meant to be here for the purpose of spreading love.
 
Romans 5:5 (KJV): And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
 
When the capacity for love is reduced to almost non-existent, you can imagine that love will become very cold on earth. Please remember too, that we read in 1 John 4… God is love, for love to be cold, that means that the presence of God will certainly not be felt. People will be so hungry for God, and it will be so hard for them to find the Lord.
 
Have you ever wondered why the Bible says…
Isaiah 55:6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near…
 
John 12:35-36 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
 
We have come to understand these verses as speaking to the spiritual darkness that we know is real and prevalent. But there is a day making its way toward us when these truths will be manifest in the physical world.
 
Oh how sad, there is a day approaching when people will not be able to find God and they are going run to find whatever sliver of false hope they hear about.   
 
…
 
Thursday is the day that Jesus celebrated the Passover with the Apostles. Today is the day that He wants to impress upon them to love well. Today is the day that He bows to wash their feet.
 
Tonight, Jesus will be arrested and held overnight in a dark gloomy hole in the ground. Tomorrow Jesus will be sentenced, His flesh torn from His body and then crucified.  In this moment Jesus demonstrated love, not simply teaching.
 
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
 
Father, thank You for Jesus! Oh Jesus, the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world! We are lost without You! Great is Your saving power! Great is Your love! We receive Your love today.
 
Blessings,
Pastor D