Love is the fact, all embracing, and
not limited to self but every sequent of humanity. Its creates distance from
all obscenities and abnormalities; it has power of renewal and charges one’s
spiritual battery. It is recommended by God and draws one closer to Him.
Love has to do with good
neighbourliness built on understanding, fellow feeling, reliable relationship,
and spirit of forgiveness; love is creative and innovative and rooted in the
receptivity of the vast mind. It is the opposite of hatred, envy, troubles,
mischief, pains, misunderstanding, discontentment, harshness, discord,
selfishness and myopic orientations. It is pure, noble, assured, positive,
progressive, humane, and attractive. It is about beauty and the practice of
same. God recommends it; Jesus practicalised it; the church is expected to
share in its fulfillments; the human race should imbibe its ethics and
aesthetics.
Jesus Christ emphasised how important
it is that his followers express and show deep love for one another. He said to
them: “I am giving you a new commandant, that you love one another ……..By this
you will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves”
(John 13:34-35). What the two expressions – one another and among yourselves”
connote is that Christians should come together in one group. For it is written
in the Book of Romans 12:25 and Ephesians 4:25 “just as there are many parts of
our bodies, so it is with Christ body. We are all parts of it, and it takes
every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So,
we belong to each other and each other needs all the citizens”.
The identification of this group
would therefore, be based on the love its members have for one another.
Surely, if a man does not love his
fellow man, everything else is useless (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
It would be recalled that the early
Christians were persistently reminded to have affection for one another,
welcome one another, slave for one another, be kind to one another, be tenderly
compassionate, continue to put up with one another freely if anyone had a cause
for complaint against another, forgiving one another, keep comforting one
another, building one another up, be peaceable with one another, have intense
love for one another (Roman 12:10;15:7; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 4:32; Peter
4:8 1 John 3:23; 4:7-11; Colossians 3:13-14:1, Thessalonians 5:11-13).
This does not imply that Christians
are not required to shower unfettered love to non Christians. They are mandated
to lover others as well. In fact, the Bible admonished all Christians to
increase in love to one another and to all (Thessalonians 3:12;16:15) Apostle
Paul had written in Galatians 6:10 “let love work what is good towards all but
especially towards those related to us in faith” While Christians must
therefore, love all including their enemies, they must especially love their
fellow members of God association, their spiritual brothers and sisters
(Matthew5:44) It is heartwarming, today, that despite the challenges of our
existence or the vagaries of life, many Christians all over the world are well
known for the love that they have for
one another. according to the second century writer. Tertullian, “people would
say of them, look how many they love one another , and how they are ready to
die for one another:
Man’s Inclination To Do Wrong.
The imperfection of man is rooted
from our original parents – Adam and Eve (Romans 5:12). And that explains why
we are persistently inclined to doing wrong. The Holy Bible says in James 3:2;
Romans 3:23 that “we all stumble many times”. Many Christians all over the
world, despite their looking up to God’s promises and for mercy, they err
persistently, consequently, eroding the virtue of love.
The problem between Apostle Paul and
Barnabas clearly demonstrated such imperfection of man. The Bible says in Acts 13:13, “When they were
about to leave on their second missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take
along his cousin Mark. However, Paul did not want Mark along, since Mark had
left them and gone home during their first missionary journey. The Bible says, “
At this there occurred a sharp burst of anger, so that they separated from each
other” (Acts 15:37-40). The anger
expressed by the twosome would have questioned how true they loved each other.
Also worthy of note was the refusal
by Apostle Peter to continue associating with the Gentiles because of the “fear
of being viewed with disfavor by some of the Jewish Christians who were wrongly
looking down on their Gentile brothers” (Galatians 2:11-14). Apostle Paul was
furious when he saw what Peter was doing, He therefore, rebuked him in strong
terms for such perceived misconduct, in the presence of the people that were
present. Peter was calm as his looks showed (Hebrews12:11).
THE STRENGTH OF LOVE.
We are however, of the view that
anger, like other negative attitudes of man, such as jealousy, hatred, mordant
criticisms, falsehood, sadism, etc are
innate, but could be curtailed when love is made to fully permeate all aspects
of our lives. “Human love is but a
shadow of God’s love” to quote Prophet T. B. Joshua.
Love can be used as a strong reason
to solve most of human troubles. The Bible is fully replete with instances of
this.
Peter was not bemused or
flabbergasted when Paul condemned him in the presence of the people. The Bible
says in 1 Peter 3:8,9, that Peter was humble; he accepted the correction and
did not allow it to cause his love for Paul to wane. Peter later referred to
Paul in a letter of encouragement to fellow Christians, captured in 2Peter3:16
in the following words: “Consider the patience of our Lord as Salvation, just
as our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom given him, also wrote you”.
Indeed Peter “allowed love to cover
over the difficulty, which in this case had resulted from his own wrong conduct
(Proverbs 10:12).
It was also love that settled the
misunderstanding between Paul and Barnabus . When Paul wrote to the Corinthian
congregation, he graciously referred to Barnabus as a close fellow worker which
clearly signified that he still loved him (1 Corinthians 9:5-6).
Albeit, Paul’s grudge over Mark’s
involvement in the journey seemed justified , Paul later wrote to Timothy when
he observed that Mark had become matured: “Take Mark and bring him with you,
for he is useful to me for ministering” (2 Timothy 4:11).
These are just two instances.
Basically, we have to take cognizance of the fact that God did not give us His
conditions which must be fulfilled before He loves us. Therefore, our
expression of love for our fellow man should not be anchored on some conditions
which may be elusive. Anger and hatred, for instance, only serve to distance us
from developing true Christian qualities, the greatest of which is love. Yet,
they (anger and hatred) should be overshadowed by love.
The Bible says, “God recommends His
own love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us
(Romans5:8) we should therefore, be ready to follow that example of God and
show love to those who do bad and foolish things.( Ephesians 5:1,2, Psalm
10:3-10).
Again, based on our imperfection, our
lord Jesus Christ thought us not to be critical of our fellow men, saying that
as others have faults, we also have. He therefore asked: “why do you look at
the straw in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the rafter in your own
eyes. (Matthew 7:1-5). The need for us to always express mercy and forgiveness
which are also rooted in love is very impressive.
Although, there are genuine
complaints, the Bible counsels: “continue to put up with one another freely if
anyone has a cause for complaint against another” This is also necessary
because Christ freely forgave us. And we have to forgive others if we have to
receive his forgiveness, Jesus said: In Matthew 18:21, it is also written “God
has forgiven us thousands of times so cannot we forgive our brothers a few times?
It is in fact ironical if we treat
our fellow man in an unloving manner at the same time claim to be practicing
the truth.
T.B Joshua’s Teaching on Love
We are very much impressed with the
teachings of one of the greatest prophets of our time – with the gift of the
garb and righteousness – Prophet T. B Joshua , particularly on the need for
humanity to always express love, The
teachings have redefined the perspective of our relationship with fellow humans
and genuinely refocused our attention on the values of such relationship built
on love. The prophet had said: There is nothing to compare to love, it is
richer than any mineral and warmer that ant sun.
His broad metaphoric view of love are
stated below:
“Love can make a king abdicate his
throne, that is resign.”
“Love can make a poor boy, poor man,
beggar become a prince”
“If spoken from the heart, nothing is
as strong as love”
“Human love is but a shadow of God’s
love”
“If God loves us, He will hide pride
from us and keep us from being exalted above measures’
“God’s love will enable us to press
on”
“God’s love centres in His will.”
“If man loves God truly, he is under
obligation to love his fellow man”
“God’s love centres on His will. It
is His will to give. It is our will to give back and also to receive the gift
freely given. Knowing God’s love will enable us to press on till tomorrow.
Nothing is stronger than love”.
“There are only three things on earth
that will last- faith, hope and love. The greatest is love.
Since the greatest is love, we need
to make the greatest sacrifice”.
“If you help your fellow brother,
then you help Jesus”
“If you dupe your fellow brother,
then you dupe Jesus”
“If you care for your fellow brother,
then you care for Jesus”
“If you ignore your fellow brother,
then you ignore Jesus”
“Whether you are educated or not,
whether you are a farmer or not, whether you are a professor or not, there is
hope in loving Jesus i.e loving others”
“If you can give your love, and
somebody wants to stand against you, he stands against God”
“I learn to love everyone because
love is the greatest Christian virtue and it Is the real nature of
spirituality. If you want to know God, you must love yourself and others…..”
“Love cares more for others than for
self”
“Love does not belittle anyone”
“Love does not force itself on
others”
“Love puts up with anything, meaning
that love is tolerant”
“Love looks around to see who is in
need”
These statements clearly reflect the
extent at which the Prophet considers love as the strought condition of
humanity. And judged by his deep sense of commitment to human growth and
development, practically reflected in his humanitarian services, the prophet
holds that the greatest expression of love is giving. His words: “We should
spend more on others and less on ourselves. This is the only way we can commit
more faith and love in the society of which we are a part…..we begin to succeed
with our lives when the hurt and problems of others begin to matter to us”
He had also elaborately affirmed that
“Whatever our purpose may be, we should let love take precedence over all
things. If we have all gifts without love, we are nothing. Love is patient___it
does not express itself in anger. Love is goodness____it does not express
itself in evil. Love is humble___it does not express itself in arrogance. Love
is hope_____it does not express itself in despair and self-pity. Jesus wants to
express Himself and carry out His mission of love to others through you. Thus
giving becomes the very basis of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no love that does not
express itself in giving. God so loved the world that He planted His best seed
on the earth so that His peace might abide with men forever. The seed gave
Himself up as a living sacrifice for our sake, to heal the broken hearted, give
the captives freedom, comfort those who mourn, release the prisoners and defeat
their enemies. What a great love! It is in our interest to show appreciation to
the Seed on all occasions”
He had further stated that “ I am a
solution to one’s problems. I am because you are”.
“No one is created without a gift.
And such gift is meant to meet a need. How many lives have you capable of
changing”, he asked.
While saying that “There are many
people on the sick bed, visit them, pray for them and show compassion on them.
That may be the solution to their problems; the prophet believes that love is a
way of energising our spirituality and at the same time oiling our
philanthropist. He has persistently, in the spirit of love, transformed many
lives and permanently enriched them. For example, his ministry SCOAN, has
always assisted the widows, widowers, the orphans the physically- challenged,
the jobless youths, the indigents, students of secondary and high institution,
etc. He has assisted many communities in the country, particularly those that
have been neglected for decades and those that faced several disasters.
He gives scholarships to many
students irrespective of where they come from A greater consideration is
however, always accorded to the depraved, the blind ,the orphans, the deaf, the
scholarly- imbued students who had performed excellently well in their studies;
the prostitutes, armed robbers, militants who had indicated their interest in
going to school or furthering their education etc.
His robust display of love is also
glaring in the joyous way he assists the poverty -stricken men and women who
troop to the church for financial assistance.
He also extends his giving spirit
beyond the chores of the nation. The quick response of the ministry to the
Haitian disaster the charity to the poor in Indonesia, the elderly in Pakistan
and the elderly in Russia, are mere tips of the iceberg.
Aside all these, the permanent
healings and deliverances carried out by the church are quite reflective of the
love the SCOAN and the prophet have for humanity.
Today, the responses to such divine
gestures have been very impressive, particularly when they are viewed against
the backdrop of what the scripture demands of a true man of God.
It is our view that when the virtues
of love are concretely understood (as marshalled by SCOAN and the prophet), and
genuinely “operationalised the blessings of God will begin to enfold humanity.
By:
http://mattersarisingafrica.wordpress.com
Sunday Patrick and Ezekiel Fajenyo
Collection Testimony:
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