Colossians 1:7-8
"As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit."
These verses are part of a five-verse paragraph Paul penned in praise to the church at Colossae. Laying out their faithfulness to Christ, he comes to a fitting crescendo, praising their love in the Spirit. This seems to be the basis for all the rest of the things which were worthy of praise.
Love in the Spirit -- this is a curious phrase, without any real clue as to what it might mean. While the Bible frequently refers to praying in the Spirit and worshipping in the Spirit, we don't see this same phrase elsewhere. Still, I think it an important concept, for it reminds every believer of that the love we're to have for each other is not a love which we naturally have, but a love coming from the Spirit's touch.
When we love others in the church based on normal ways of thinking, our love holds true only as long as we get along with each other, or have our own way in decision making, or not have our feelings have hurt by inconsiderate words. The bottom-line is this. Without the Spirit, we only love when we feel like it. Unless the conditions are right, we do not love each other in the church.
Of course, this is not God's way. Christ demonstrated love that had no bounds, that surpassed all understanding, that forgave even when there was no basis for forgiveness. That's the love we are to have in the church, and the only way we can know this love is to exercise the love of the Spirit.
Like other Spiritual disciplines, love is not something we can simply commit to and then it happens. We need God's help even to get started, and I think that prayer is the beginning point. We need to ask the Spirit to enable us to love each other. We don't need to wait until things are just right, or our relationships are broken, before beginning this course of prayer. We simply need to pray for each other, and as we pray, the Lord will empower us to love in the Spirit.
We also need to ask the Lord to give us a heart to love others as we already love ourselves. If you do, you'll be surprised by what the Lord may do next in your life. The Spirit will start by changing our own hearts towards others so that we begin to see others through God's love. That's just the way our God does it. He changes us when we begin to exercise his love.
LORD JESUS
Lord, I ask you to give me a love from your Spirit for others. May I not grow cold and impersonal in dealing with those you've already shown your love to in Christ.
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