Love that Overflows
And may the Lord make
your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our
love for you overflows.” —1 Thessalonians 3:12 nlt
In this chapter of his letter to the
Thessalonians, Paul is expressing some concern over the spiritual condition of
the church there. They are experiencing some severe trials and Paul sends
Timothy to see if their faith is holding firm. He is ecstatic at the news that
their faith—and especially their love—has stood the test.
I realize too often how impotent I am in my own strength to face or
overcome the trials of life. But I am also encouraged by the words Paul
emphasizes to these embattled believers in Thessalonica: overflowing love. This is an extraordinary, God-empowered love. The
Thessalonians knew that the ability to love people who were causing them
problems—in other words, the ability to love their enemies—could only come from
God. It’s the kind of love that lives in the person who is full of the Holy
Spirit and his operative power. It’s extreme love.
In financial terms, it’s like being able to spend lavishly with the
interest from your invested principal. It’s dividend love. God’s great love in
us is the principal, and he enables us to love others with the excess, the
overflow, the dividend love!
Holy God, I need you to fill me and
transform me into the kind of person who would rather love his enemies than
fear them or fight them. I know that’s only possible if your excessive love
lives in me. Fill me so that your love is the principal upon which I am
yielding dividends. And may that dividend love cast out all fear and equip me
to love extremely—even those who seek to hurt me. Amen.
David
Bish, Senior Pastor, Tri-County Church of God, Dubois, Pennsylvania
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