1 Thessalonians 4.1 As
for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order
to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the
Lord Jesus to do this more and more. St. Paul
The goal of the Christian life is to excel – we’re to
excel at things like faithfulness, love, kindness, goodness and other virtues.
Without the Holy Spirit, we are incapable of any of this; but with Him, we
excel more and more.
Life on earth is not perfect, nor is it without its
difficulties and setbacks; but we serve a God who knows our weakness, and has
given us His Spirit to be our guide and motivation. And, not only that, but God
has given us His Spirit to be our Friend. I believe in the Friendship of
God. I also believe that God hasn’t left us without capacity for that
friendship; and that is why we can excel more and more.
Humans know and understand limits. Earth for us is mostly
limited. Seasons begin and end. Each day starts and ends. And the total days of
our physical lives are limited. But the Gift of God is Himself and His
limitlessness. We may not comprehend that fully, but it’s our gift nonetheless.
And the more we walk with God the more we experience (even in the limits of
earth) His limitlessness toward eternity: the limitlessness of no time, and all space.
To even urge someone to love more and more means for them
to experience God more and more. It takes a God-sized love to love other
humans. We are fallen and we seem to inherently know that. And just when we
feel we’ve met the best of them, we’ll
find the worst in them. That calls
for love. That calls for acceptance, and that is supplied infinitely by the
Lord Himself who has given us of His Spirit endlessly; the capacity to love
more and more – to excel more and more.
If eternity is limitlessness, they we better get used to
that as we make our way home. If the capacity for more and more has been given
to us – then may we be people of more and more of God, His Kingdom, and His
love: for Him and for all who call upon His Name.
Father, thank You
for taking the limits off in Jesus Christ by His Spirit. It is no big thing for
me to love each other more and more when I quit limiting myself by the bounds
of the understanding of earth and accept the limitlessness that is mine from
Heaven in Christ. I want more and more – Amen.
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