Characteristics of Love: Love is Responsible
Romans 2:1,3 (GNS) Do you, my friend, pass judgment on others? You have no excuse at all, whoever you are. For when you judge others and then do the same things which they do, you condemn yourself. But you, my friend, do those very things for which you pass judgment on others! Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
Introduction: Glory be to God who has not left us without His words that deliver from bondage.
🙏 May we be unforgettable hears and doers of His words in Jesus name
📎 The 26th characteristic of God’s kind of Love this week is: Love is Responsible.
To be responsible means to take blame for a particular event or situation.
I shared with you sometime ago about the broken flower vase. The wife broke the flower vase accidentally and apologised to the husband while the husband took the blame for putting the vase inappropriately. Both took responsibility, that is God’s kind of Love in action. Some husbands would have said unprintable words against their wives for the broken flower vase.
🛑 Knowing Love is responsible, and Jesus commands His Disciples to love one another, then Christian couples are to be responsible for one another. That is how true Disciples are known.
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
God’s kind of Love is responsible. Christ the Husband of the church gave example by laying down His life for our transgressions.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
We are quick to judge the wrongdoing of our spouses without thinking that we can do the same or worse things.
In His teachings, Jesus Christ warned disciples not to judge because same judgment they pronounced shall be meted out to them.
Matthew 7:1-2(GNS) “Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.
❓Do you remember the historical fact about David when Nathan was sent to him by God?
2 Samuel 12:1-7(NLT) So the lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.” David was furious. “As surely as the lord lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.
Most times we are furious with actions of our spouses and passed judgment without thinking of what we have done or could have done wrong that God overlooked and rescued us from Satan.
❓ If God will mark iniquity, who can stand?
Psalms 130:3(NLT) Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?
Unfortunately, we don’t see our back that is why we become superman or woman when we see errors of another. That is why we do not take responsibility but feel justified whenever there is quarrel.
Psalms 19:12 None of us can see our own errors;deliver me, Lord, from hidden faults!
I have discovered that no one is guiltless when it comes to squabbles among couples as we all dwell in human/sinful nature
Psalms 51:5(NLT) For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
❓Do you remember how the woman caught red-handed in adultery escaped death from her accusers?
John 8:7-9 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
🛑 What I think is expedient for Christian couples who feel offended is to leave the offending spouse with the Master, the Head of the Church to pass His judgment in Love as He addressed the woman caught in adultery.
John 8:10-11 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
To avoid being hypocritical, let us take responsibility for whom we love by casting out the beam before our eyes so as to see clearly the mote in the eyes of the beloved.
Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
❓What practical steps are we to take as we walk in love this week?
▶️ Take time to pray through your areas of wrongdoing. Ask for God’s forgiveness, then humble yourself enough to admit them to your spouse. Do it sincerely and truthfully. Ask your spouse for forgiveness as well. No matter how they respond, make sure you cover your responsibility in love. Even if they respond with criticism, accept it by receiving it as counsel.
✍ Finally brethren, considering how God loves us by being responsible for our transgressions, we ought to love one another by taking responsibility. God’s kind of Love is Responsible.
1 John 4:11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
✋ Maranatha
