OVERFLOWING LOVE

I Thess. 3:12-13 And may the Lord make your love grow and overflow to each other and to everone else, just as our love overflows toward you. As a result, Christ will make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy when you stand before God our Father on that day when our Lord Jesus comes with all those who belong to him.

Not only should we love one another, it should overflow! How many of us can honestly say that we have so much love for others that we just cannot contain it? Yet, this was Paul's prayer for the church. He wanted the church to have so much love for each other that it overshadowed everything else. Overflowing love wards off any internal strife that may arise. It keeps people together and working together for the common good of the body. It nips in the bud anything that crops up that could be divisive or disruptive. It always seeks to edify and encourage.

Getting along in love in the church is not only what we should do, we should get along with everyone else in the same way as well. We should have such love in our hearts for people that we strive as much as possible to live at peace with everyone and strive to be as helpful as we can when we have opportunity to do so.

When we learn to be a loving people, our hearts grow in faith. Faith grows stronger as we love others. When we become a people of love, we become like Christ, holy and blameless before God. God is love and commands us to be a people of love. We cannot live in Christ and not love others. It doesn't mean we will get along with everyone, but as for our part, we will love them regardless of what they may say or do to us. Our desire should always be that the Lord use us as vessels of love in and outside of the church.