Focus: Love In Action

Text: 2Sam.1:26

"I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: VERY PLEASANT hast thou been unto me: THY LOVE TO ME WAS WONDERFUL, passing the love of women."

David mourns for Jonathan's demise. Losing such a friend as Jonathan was distressing for David. The pain he felt was deep because of the love that existed between them. David focused on Jonathan's love for him. He says, "Very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." Jonathan's love for David was real, deep, pure, intense, earnest, and costly. He went all out in his love for David. 

Let us go back to how the love started. The Scripture says, "And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul… Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle" (1Sam.18:1,3,4). What a love! Soul to soul love. Knitted and ignited love. It was a love in which Jonathan did all the giving and David did all the receiving. It was the love of a prince for a shepherd or peasant boy. Jonathan gave away his royal robe and other garments, even down to his sword, bow and girdle, and he sealed the love with a covenant. So it was a covenant love. It was love that flowed from one soul to another. This is nothing short of love in action. O Lord, teach us to love like this!

This kind of love played out when the church came into being by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. We read that "the multitude of them that believed were of ONE HEART and of ONE SOUL: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common" (Act.4:32). This was koinonia of the highest order - a sort of spiritual communism. They practiced common union. The church is the place where we believe the same thing and belong together, even sharing things in common. 

Where can we find real love today in our churches and fellowships? Who is still stripping himself of his precious possessions for the benefit of another for love's sake?

Jonathan loved David more than a woman could love a man, more than a man could love a woman, or more than two women could love themselves. Whichever way you look at it, Jonathan's love for David surpassed them all. His love for David was pure and passionate. It was a royal and a loyal love. It was love devoid of envy and jealousy. It was love devoid of superiority mentality. The news was everywhere in the land that David had killed Goliath. Information was also making rounds that David would, in the process of time, sit on Israel's throne. Yet Jonathan had no resentment and hatred in his heart against David. All that was surging up in his heart for David was love - acute love.

Beyond the affectionate love of Jonathan for David is the supreme love of Jesus Christ for His own. Jesus says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jh.15:13). Paul says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Eph.5:25). John says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1Jh.3:1).

Let me put it in the form of acronym. Jesus Christ loves us:

*Lavishly

*Openly

*Verily

*Extremely

And again, He loves us:

*Limitlessly

*Overwhelmingly

*Vehemently

*Extravagantly

God commands us to pass on Jesus' love to others. John writes, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death… My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" (1Jh.3:16,18). This is love in action. Love beyond words. Selfless love. Sacrificial love. The love of Jesus. Peter calls it the "unfeigned love of the brethren," "fervent charity," and he says, "See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1Pet.1:22; 4:8). Paul writes, "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your FAITH groweth exceedingly, and the CHARITY of every one of you all toward each other ABOUNDETH" (2Thes.1:3). In Col.3:14, he says, "And above all these things put on CHARITY, which is the BOND OF PERFECTNESS," and in 1Cor.8:1, he says that "love edifieth." He also describes love as the "end of the commandment" (1Tim.1:5).

People of God, love is a verb. It is more than what we say; it is what we do. Let's do love - love as God means or intends it, not a corrupted version of it. Be another Jonathan today!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter