“and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” 2 Peter 1:7
December 15, 2025
The seventh petal on the fragrant and beautiful flower of the God-pleasing life is love. The wonderful virtue of love has suffered much in the hands of a world consumed with self-worship. The self-esteem craze has done its damage. Lauren Slater has summed it up well, “people with high self-esteem pose a greater threat to those around them than people with low self-esteem and feeling bad about yourself is not the source of our country’s biggest, most expensive social problems.” True love, God’s love, supernatural love in the lives of Christian believers is the deliberate desire for the highest good in the one loved. We are to grow in our pursuit for good to be realized in those that we love. God’s love is evoked not by what we are, but by who He is. So we must love. Tim Keller in his booklet on “The Freedom of Self- Forgetfulness,” takes us to the soul of love, “Because He (God) loves me and accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my resume. I do not have to do things to make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them. I can help people to help people – not so I can feel better about myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness.” Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the desires of the new nature, and serious effort we can grow in our concern for the good of all people everywhere.
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Reflections: Am I growing in my desire to see those outside of Christ come to faith in Him?
In what ways am I progressing in being a humble, self-forgetful person?