When an individual receives Jesus Christ as his or her personal Lord and Savior, something miraculous happens. Their previous sin nature is replaced with the life and nature of God, and the hallmark characteristic of this new nature is love.
1 John 4:16b (AMP)
God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.
God’s nature is love. It is not something He has, it is something He is. Both the precept and the principle of love both point to the person of God Himself. The degree to which we dwell and continue in love is the degree to which we dwell and continue in God. Dwelling and continuing in God refer to walking in love. To walk in love is actually to live a life filled with God, who is love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
Now we have to define the word “love.” The Greek word for the God-kind of love is Agape, which is unconditional and self sacrificial in nature, as opposed to natural human love which is selfish in nature. Agape is an unselfish love that is ready to serve. Natural human love has a tendency to only be concerned with “What’s in it for me?” It is by nature, selfish. There is a combat touching every human life. It is the war between love and selfishness. You see it everywhere you see people problems. God has a solution for it. It is the new kind of love called Agape.
Agape love is the solution to every human problem. Love is the key to every area concerning human relationships. When we walk in love, we release the power of God in our lives. God’s frequency is a love frequency. When we step out of love, we are off God’s frequency and His ability is of no avail to us.
The first step to putting the God-kind of love into practice in your life is to know what the characteristics of Agape are. When we know what the characteristics are, then we will be one step closer to doing them. The characteristics of this perfect God-kind of love are found in First Corinthians chapter 13, commonly known in the Bible as the love chapter. This love chapter is the interpretation of the new commandment of the new creation, and the following verses describe the characteristics of Agape, the God-kind of love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NKJV)
v. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
v. 5 Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
v. 6 Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth;
v. 7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
v. 8 Love never fails.
These characteristics describe God because God is love. This is His attitude in relation to others, and He expects us to adopt this same attitude. This is who God is. This is how God acts. He expects us to act this way also. When we act this way, supernatural things begin to happen in our relationships and in our lives. When we adopt this attitude and act this way, we are living in God, and He is living through us.
The Amplified Translation gives us a beautiful description of the attributes of God’s love nature, the same nature that inhabits our re-created human spirits. It elaborates on how Agape, the God-kind of love, behaves in relation to others.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (AMP)
v. 4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; Love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
v. 5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
v. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
v. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening].
v. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
How amazing is the above description of the God-kind of love? What is even more extraordinary is that we have the ability to live this way, but just like any ability, it needs to be cultivated and developed.
The first step to cultivating and developing this love nature is to say the love Scriptures in the first person. Substitute the word “I” for the word “love.” “I endure long and am patient and kind.” “I am never envious nor boil over with jealousy.” “I am ever ready to believe the best of every person.” “I pay no attention to a suffered wrong,” etc. For the next 30 days, say the love Scriptures first thing in the morning and last thing at night before you go to bed. You will begin to act on what you have been saying and when you act on God’s Word, He moves on your behalf and He moves in your relationships. You will be hooked up with the ultimate success in life because love never fails.
Jesus said that you will have whatever you say (See Mark 11:23). When you say the love Scriptures, you will have in your life what the love Scriptures say. What is the universal quest of mankind? To be loved. How many people reading this want to be loved? Everybody has a desire to be loved. Say the love Scriptures, act on them, and God will cause people to love you. When you apply the love Scriptures to your relationships, whether it be husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, parent/child, employer/employee or any other relationship, God will move in that relationship. To believe that this can actually happen in your relationships is to believe the best of God because He is the one who is going to bring it to pass.
The next way to cultivate and develop the God-kind of love in your life is to meditate the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians and the epistle of First John. This is where the majority of the love Scriptures can be found. The best known text on love in the Bible comes from the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the word “love” is mentioned some 43 times in the epistle of First John. Do you want to produce successful results in your life? If you answered yes, then meditate on the love Scriptures because love never fails. Let these Scriptures soak into your very inner being and you will be drenched with the power to live a life of success and victory.
Finally, practice living First Corinthians 13:4-8 in your daily life. You can say the love Scriptures and you can meditate the love Scriptures, but if you do not put them into practice, they will not do you any good. The word “abide” occurs in one form or another some 20 times in the epistle of First John. It means to live in fellowship, to practice, and to act. When you act on God’s Word by practicing the love Scriptures, God begins to move on your behalf and in your relationships. You are now in a position to receive your heart’s desire and realize your God-given dreams.
1 John 3:22 (NLT)
And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him.
Practicing the love Scriptures is the ultimate test of your obedience to God. There is no pleasing God unless we obey Him. One way that love is known is from the actions it prompts. Obedience refers to acting on God’s Word as outlined in the love Scriptures, and walking in love (obedience) is how you confirm that you are in Christ. Being in Christ refers to our union with God-we are His children.
1 John 2:5 (NKJV)
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
Perfection here means that God’s love had reached its fulfillment in our lives. When we habitually walk in love, we can have confidence that we will receive our heart’s desire and realize our God-given dreams.
1 John 3:24 (NLT)
Those who obey God’s commandments live in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us.
Walking in love and fellowship are connected. Walking in love brings us into the deepest fellowship with God. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit brings both the desire and the ability to walk in love. The Holy Spirit verifies that we are living a life filled with love.
We must let Agape, the God-kind of love, gain the ascendancy and have dominion in our lives. When we make a commitment to develop this love nature, we are ensuring our success in life because love never fails! What better admonition from God do we have than this: If you want to be successful in every area of your life, meditate on and say the love Scriptures, practice them, and you will see amazing positive changes in your relationships and in your life. When you receive God’s love at the new birth, you are receiving the ability of God. When you walk in love, you are releasing the ability of God in your life and in your relationships. Jesus said it this way:
John 14:23 (NKJV)
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
Can you imagine the Father and Jesus coming to make their residence in your home? Imagine being able to start every day with the counsel of the Creator of the universe. When you act on God’s Word by walking in love, that is exactly what becomes your reality.