Love Is Faithful

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
My congregation may not know it, but most days I preach from behind my pulpit, my heart is breaking. It’s the same love that compels me to serve/teach that incites this pain. Thankfully, without fail the holy, sovereign, faithful Spirit of the Lord God braces me and reminds me that I am doing His bidding by administering the healing ointment of His Word to the souls of the needy. Without His love’s presence in me, there’s simply no way I’d continue on with any of this. It’s just too excruciating at times; yet, almost paradoxically, I have a very real joy set before me, and I want to share it!

I thank God for the joy He has set before any of us, for it is this joy, made manifest through the faithfulness of love, that assures our fellowship with God is genuine. “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8).

The “Apostle of Love”, John, understood the depths of divine joy. To this day he teaches us about where it is that we find this transcendent fruit of the Spirit (ref. Galatians 5:22). In his first epistle, he describes this holy estate as fellowship. The base Greek word translated “fellowship” throughout 1 John 1 is also translated “partner” in Luke 5:10 and 2 Corinthians 8:23, revealing that this idea extends beyond just being a receiver of divine grace and love (in a passive way), and enters into the realm of personal communion, where each party enjoys things in common with the other (in an active way). This is what John quoted Jesus as saying in the Gospel after his name, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23). Paul expressed this same type of love-borne communion by using the same concept of “unity” Jesus referred to above. “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Colossians 3:14). This is where we get the word “comm-unity” (com = “with” + “unity” = singularity). Few things are sweeter to a shepherd than for his flock to be unified in the faith, bound by love. Such is the essence of true fellowship with the Lord, as we are His sheep whom He called especially to Himself, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). John was counted among the first such followers of Jesus “from the beginning” so he wrote:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us — what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
John’s love was truly faithful, evidenced by his unerring desire to clarify the only true way of fellowship with the Lord God. This is the loftiest goal of redemption, after all. We have been purchased with a price, not to be regarding the Lord from a distance thereafter, but to be brought close to Him, personally. This was God’s will in Christ Jesus (John 3:16).

Love didn’t fail on the Cross, nor has it failed in unifying us through the gift of faith. Love itself is faithful in every way, incapable of failure, as its preeminence is in God (1 John 4:16). It has brought every believer in Christ close to Him, fostering a “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8b).

Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O LORD God of hosts.
How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!
O LORD, they walk in the light of Your countenance.
In Your name they rejoice all the day,
And by Your righteousness they are exalted.Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me, I shall be glad in the LORD.
I love the LORD, because He hears
My voice and my supplications.
This is the day which the LORD has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Love is faithful. Love never fails. These are words to abide in, my friends. My work here in this blog is consistent with that which pours from my pulpit. My hope is always the same, to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). When the messages become particularly difficult to swallow, remember the Apostles and their unapologetic defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Know that a good heart is revealed through good works. “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart” (Psalm 15:1-2).

Love expressed righteously may not always be palatable, but it is always necessary, hence its faithfulness. “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). “Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm” (2 Corinthians 1:24).

These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
John’s love never splintered, it was always impartial. I appreciate his words so very much because he wanted what I want this very day, your fellowship in Christ. My heart aches for those who are deceived even though such news may be offensive to them. They may even tell me to spend my prayers on someone else who needs them. Ugh. “There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, yet is not washed from his filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12). The goal of my instruction is that my “joy may be made complete,” in the spirit of the apostles who have preceded me, that you enjoy true fellowship with God, and are confirmed in it through your faith and the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit.

It’s love that motivates all of us, and so very faithful it is. Love has never failed, not once.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins