The Happen Stance

How to Make Things Happen In Your Christian Life

K. Neill Foster

LOVE IS THE SUPERWEAPON of the Christian, the weapon among all others in the Christian's arsenal which dwarfs all its competitors. And my difficulty in this chapter will be to avoid rewriting my book on love. But I will repeat some basic material and then add some things which were not in my earlier writing.

First, it needs to be stated that two Greek words are generally used to denote love in the New Testament. Agape love involves personal judgment and the deliberate assent of the will. It is love in the social, or moral, sense. It is the type of love which God requires to be directed toward Himself and our Christian brethren. It is love in its "fullest conceivable form." Phileo love denotes friendship, fondness, and the involvement of the feelings. This love, though legitimate, is not intimate.

AGAPE LOVE

Here we wish to discover and describe the power of agape love. Interestingly enough, such love is not limited to Christian believers. Unbelievers, for example, are also able to exercise it (Luke 6:32, 33). Men can, in the agape sense, love darkness rather than light (John 3:19).

On the other hand, agape love in the Christian believer can get cold and stiff (Matt. 24:12). It is possible to leave one's first agape love (Rev. 2:4). Worst of all, agape love can be feigned (2 Cor. 6:6).

Notwithstanding these negative possibilities, agape love is that which we are to direct to God. It is love from the will, by which we are to love God with heart, mind, soul, and strength.

If we wait to feel love toward God we may never feel it. Fortunately, on the gospel train will is the engine and feeling is the caboose. The man who expresses his love to God, even though he does not feel it, is not being dishonest. He is exercising his will. Agape love needs to be sought and honestly acted out; the Christian believer will then discover that this dimension of love has come alive within him.

A few years ago my wife learned this lesson, and through her learning it, I learned it too. It began when she asked a convention speaker how she could learn to love. It had taken a lot of courage for her to ask that question and the speaker's answer was so abrupt as to be almost insulting. He said simply, "You begin by saying it." And that was all.

My wife was crestfallen and a bit rebellious. "Why should I say something I don't feel?" she thought.

"Wouldn't that be dishonest?" But finally she decided since she felt God had led her to speak to that particular man, she should at least attempt to follow his advice. I am glad she did, because by following it, her life and our home were changed. Irrevocably.

YOU DO IT

Related to these statements about the human will is the scriptural teaching that love is something one does. Jesus reprimanded two Pharisees because they were leaving justice and the love of God "undone" (Luke 11:42). The implication is clear: love is something you do. It must be demonstrated in speech and deed, though not necessarily in that order.

And we certainly say that love always results in obedience. One of my friends calls this "one of the most difficult parts of the gospel." And so it is. It is comparatively easy to express love. It is inestimably more difficult to live love, to make it our life-style. But I am persuaded we must come to the place where we examine every action by the love standard. There is a profound emphasis in the New Testament on the obedience which invariably follows true love for Christ. This concept is reiterated so often (John 14:23; 14:31; 1 John 5:2, and many more references) that the only possible conclusion is that the true proof of love is obedience. Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words. . ." (John 14:23).

Obviously, He meant it. Repetition makes it clear. You must love God. That is number one. You must love your neighbor. That is number two.

TRIPLE TREATMENT

And you must love your brother. That is the new commandment. A tremendous emphasis is given to this commandment in the New Testament if we have eyes to see it. For example, Jesus gives a three-fold emphasis to several things in the New Testament. The new birth. Repentance. Discipleship. And this new commandment gets the triple treatment too (John 13:34; 15:12; and 15:17). When the additional biblical references to love for Christian brethren are taken into account, love for the brethren has to exceed all else in importance. If we feel uncomfortable having Christian love take precedence over the new birth, it is an unhappy commentary on our spiritual lives. Of course, only those who have been born again are able to truly love God.

Not only does our Savior command love, but He has made available the means for securing and experiencing it.

LOVE BOMB

The Holy Spirit stands ready to pour love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and when a person is converted, or born again by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit becomes one with the human spirit. So every Christian has a love bomb within him! It is ready to explode, and given the proper circumstances it will.

The love explosion is often called the filling or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Call it what you may, it is available, it is within reach, and all may be filled.

Paul used another figure in Colossians 3: 14 where he said, "Put on love" or as you may even translate it, "Fall into love."

BLEED LOVE

Surely God's love is like an ocean which we need to "fall into," be immersed in, and be saturated with. When a Christian is cut, he should bleed love.

Love has its rewards too. A crown of righteousness awaits those who love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). There will be a crown of life for those who love Him (James 1:12). The kingdom has been promised to those who love Him (James 2:5). All things work together for good to those who love Him (Rom. 8 :28). God has unimaginable things prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). Those who love God the most will certainly receive the most from Him.

But there are perils. Many times people are afraid to love because they feel vulnerable. What if the other person does not reciprocate?

An elderly missionary made this analogy. Loving another person is like climbing a tree and then moving out on a limb. The person can cut off the limb behind you and you will be hurt. But you must immediately climb the tree again and seek another limb. No matter how many times you fall, you must climb again. The moment you stop at the foot of the tree and refuse to climb, you have failed to love.

Love's cost is high. It cost the Father His Son. It cost the Savior His blood. But its benefits are great. Love never fails.

I am reminded of an incident which took place at one of our summer conventions. A father warned his mischievous eleven-year-old boy, "If you do that again I'll punish you." He had hardly turned away before the boy had disobeyed. There was no recourse but to take the lad to a clump of trees for the punishment. The boy shuffled on ahead, rebellion showing in his shoulders and walk.

Once in the secluded area, the father took off his belt. Then he handed it to the boy. "There has to be punishment," he said, "this time you must punish me. If you don't give it to me hard, I'll give it to you after."

As the father related the incident later, he said, "I just stood there with my arms folded. I took the licking for my boy. I was weeping, and all I could say was, '1 love you son, I love you son.' "

Still the boy did not break. It was not until the father and the son were walking back to camp that the lad finally reached up with scrawny little-boy arms and brokenly said, "I love you too, Dad."

"My boy is still not an angel by any means," says the father today, "but, praise the Lord, we turned a corner that day."

LOVE CONQUERS ALL

There is no situation, no problem, no difficulty which cannot be conquered by love. It can bear all things and believe all things. It can forbear, abound, and contain. It can hold things together, it can protect, it can temper the truth without diluting it. Love is the expression of compassion. It expels fear. It exceeds speaking as a medium of expression. Love has the capacity to use supernatural gifts with supernatural effort.

Love is supreme. "Above all things have fervent charity" (1 Pet. 4:8). How important is love! Love remains. "Now abideth faith, hope, love, . . . but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13).

Love is really the greatest!

For years the supremacy of love was theory with me, a theology. But in recent years I have seen a few times when the love bomb has exploded among God's people. I can never be the same and I know many others can never be the same either. We were marked for eternity by God's love.

I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of them are a part of my ministry and I know that the genuinely charismatic atmosphere can be tremendously powerful and fragrantly beautiful. But love is so much greater, so very much greater.

I have witnessed the explosive, expulsive power of Jesus' name. All authority is His. In such a situation the sense of God's power is very great. It almost seems sacrilegious to say love is the greatest, but it is.

I recall praying for a Cree Indian lad in the wilderness of Alberta. God was pleased to straighten his arm from an infirmity he had suffered since birth. We discovered the healing the next day when we came to church. We saw the lad shaking hands - both hands - with everybody around! In a circumstance like that, one feels a sense of awe. The miracles of God are always great.

But love is greater. Yes, it is. Yes, He is.

Because He is love.

Christ is love.

And Christ is greater than any of the things He does. A.B. Simpson's hymn is so appropriate -

All in all forever,

Jesus will I sing.

Everything in Jesus

And Jesus everything.

Amen.

Chapter 16