Rick Joyner’s Word For the Week: The Weapon of Love

If we do not keep the love for God first, our love for others will be corrupted.

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In the last two Words for the Week, we covered two of the three core Christian virtues that are a pillar of stability for believers, especially in these turbulent times. They are “divinely powerful weapons.” As we covered peace and joy in the last two weeks, now we will address the greatest of these: Love.

There is no greater peace than we can have than knowing the love of God. There is no greater joy than we can have than bringing His love to others.

Because “God is love,” His love is the highest expression of who He is. When we abide in His love we attain the highest realization of what we were created for—to receive His love and to carry it to others.

The “greatest commandment” is to love God. The second greatest is to love one another. Therefore, the measure of a successful human life will be by how much we love Him, and then by how much we love others.

Some say that love is not an emotion. Consider this, how would you feel if your spouse said that they did not feel anything for you, but they loved you by faith? God created emotions because we need them to experience His love and to show love to others. Love is not only an emotion; it is the highest emotion.

Even so, love is more than an emotion. Love is not just a noun, but it is also an action verb. Love that also does. Love is such a powerful emotion that it cannot be contained, but must be expressed.

Heidi Baker says, “Love looks like something.” This being said, actions without love do not raise us up but lower us. As the Apostle Paul wrote:

“If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

“If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2-3).

Love without works is not real, but works without love do not count. This is why the exhortations in Scripture to care for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed is always to individuals, not governments and organizations. Charity that is institutionalized is dehumanizing. Love and charity are meant to be expressed person to person.

This is not to say that organizations and governments cannot do good, but if these good deeds are done just to keep score on how much they are doing, even the recipients of their charity will start to despise those organizations even if they need them. When charities are filled with truly loving people there is a difference. For this reason, we are told in I Timothy 1:5: “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

If we do not keep the love for God first, our love for others will be corrupted. When we start to esteem the love for others above our love for God, our love and our works will become idols. Then they result in self-centeredness, becoming possessive, and the opposite of true love that gives. Keeping our love for God first purifies our love for others.

Our goal must be to see with The Lord’s eyes. He does not just see people as they are, but as they are called to be. His words and actions that express His love edify and call us higher. When something is hindering us from growing into what we are called to be, such as sin, love confronts and brings correction, but in a redemptive way for our good.

For this reason, we are told in Hebrews 12:6, “For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines….” Strong discipline in love gives life and keeps us on the path of life. Love is the oxygen of The Spirit, so in all things, we must pursue growing in our love for God, and thereby our love for one another.

 

© 2021 by Rick Joyner. All rights reserved.

 

This is an updated edition of a post originally published on MorningStar Ministries

Featured Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay


Rick and Julie Joyner founded MorningStar Ministries in 1985. It is a diverse and expanding international ministry that began with the biblical mandate of Matthew 24:45-46:

“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.”

Rick has authored more than fifty books, including The Final Quest TrilogyThere Were Two Trees in the GardenThe Path, and Army of the Dawn. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of MorningStar Ministries, a multi-faceted mission organization that includes Heritage International MinistriesMorningStar UniversityMorningStar Fellowship of Churches and Ministries. Click here to take a look at Rick’s latest Rant #ricksrants

The views and opinions expressed by Kingdom Winds Collective Members, authors, and contributors are their own and do not represent the views of Kingdom Winds LLC.

About the Author

MorningStar Ministries is a Kingdom Winds Contributor. They are a diverse and expanding international ministry founded by Rick and Julie Joyner in 1985. MorningStar's goal is to help strengthen the church by helping believers become the strongest Christians possible, and therefore true light and salt in the earth.