The Love of God in Us

“To him who is afflicted, pity is due from his friend, but he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.” (Job 6:14)

Before we get to our Scripture, let’s look at the scenario. The devil has afflicted Job terribly. Job has lost his family, his animals, his respect in the community and his health. He was covered with sores throughout his body. His friends came to see him. (Job 1-2) But they begin a discourse. Long story, short, they blame him for his troubles, sure that all that has happened to him is because of sin. Eliphaz speaks first. (Job 4) Instead of comforting Job, he accuses him of being weak. “Behold, you have instructed many, and you have made the weak hands strong. Your words have upheld him who was falling, and you have made strong the feeble knees. But now it has come upon you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.” (Job 4:3-5) Eliphaz accuses him of false religion and hypocrisy. “Is not your reverence your hope? Is not your hope the uprightness of your ways? Remember, please, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? As I have seen, the ones who plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils they are destroyed.” (Job 4:6-9) He implies that Job’s troubles are like the destruction of the wicked. “I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling place. His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, nor is there any to deliver them. Their harvest the hungry eats and takes it even out of the thorns; and the snare swallows up their wealth.” (Job 5:3-5) Then Job answers in chapter 6 when he makes the statement in Job 6:14.

Job expected kindness in his affliction, the basic compassion due to someone in affliction by those who are content, comfortable and enjoying a calm life. There should have been concern and pity over Job’s condition. It is the humane response to another’s suffering. John speaks about this in his epistle. “But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?” (1John 3:17) All of us once belonged to that selfish and egocentric world of darkness before believing in Jesus. But when we believed, we were born again of God, taken from the kingdom of sin and darkness to another kingdom, another world, the world where God lives. We were born again with the nature of God, a different creature. “So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) We have the Holy Spirit living in us and Who is with us always. “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you.” (John 14:16-17) Our bodies became the temple of God, His dwelling place. “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1Corinthians 3:16) And we live to daily change more and more in the likeness of Christ. The Bible tells us that God is love. If we have God’s nature, we have love dwelling in us. And every day, we grow more and more in this love. John’s statement asks how can God Who is love dwell in someone who doesn’t show compassion toward the needy? (1John 3:17) The answer is that God’s character is not evident because a selfish and cruel person does not have God. The love of God is not dwelling in them.

“And coming up one of the scribes heard them reasoning, knowing that He had answered them well, he asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment. And the second is like this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31) This is clear. Love God first and then love others as yourself. James calls it the royal commandment. “If you fulfill the royal Law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well.” (James 2:8) No one is cruel to themselves. But a person who believes God, His Word, His gift of salvation through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, has love dwelling in him. He should be moved by compassion and able to give what is needed. God living in the believer will move to provide what is needed.

The Royal Law was given by Jesus, the King of kings and subsequent to the Law of Moses. We cannot say it was part of the Law and doesn’t pertain to us who are under the New Covenant. Even so, we obey the Law in our hearts through Jesus Who completed the Law for us. Before Christ no one could be justified (found guiltless) through the Law. It pointed to our inability to do right. But Jesus completed the whole Law. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) And Paul tells us that he did. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Romans10:4) In today’s vernacular it says, Christ concluded and ended its purpose now that righteousness is through Him for those who believe. “So that the Law has become a trainer of us until Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24) Today and through the New Covenant, we are justified, declared guiltless, by faith in Jesus. For those who doubt we can just think of the “million” times we tried to be “good” and couldn’t sustain it before our faith in Jesus. But now through Christ, we go from glory to glory. That means from obedience to obedience each time becoming more like Christ. And every believer knows that obedience is hard gained through suffering, tribulation and affliction. It’s not a frivolous thing. It’s a holy process of sanctification; the character of Christ being formed in us.

Concluding, if we believe in Jesus and have the Holy Spirit indwelling, we have love and are able to express that love to others. We are all in the process of becoming more like Jesus, our love for humanity growing more. Our ability to love and meet the basic human concern for others comes from the God in us.

Let us pray:

Father God, I thank You for Your marvelous gift of salvation through Jesus my Lord. I thank You that the Holy Spirit indwells. Thank You that I am connected to You Father and to Jesus through the Holy Spirit at all times. I thank You that when the Holy Spirit speaks to me, He speaks Your Will and what Jesus has said. Father, You love mankind, even those who don’t know You. It’s Your will for them to repent and enjoy fellowship with You Lord. Open my eyes of understanding that I may see that spiritual need and also the need in their souls, body and life here on earth. I ask You Lord to give me sensitivity to the needs around me. I ask that You enable me to meet the needs supernaturally through You. And most of all my Lord, to show love and patience toward those who don’t know You, to show the most common of human decency to those in need of Your grace and love. In the Name of Jesus I pray, amen.