Ultimate Love!

Today we conclude the series of thoughts highlighting How To Guarantee a Productive and Effective Life from II Peter 1:5-11. The pivoltal verse in this paragraph of Scripture is verse 8 which reads, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have looked at these qualities: 1. Faith is the foundation for all things, You must be born again! 2. Add to your faith virtue involves Taking Out the Trash! 3. Add to your virtue knowlege, which we called Christianity for Dummies Like Me! 4. Add to your knowlege self-control, which we called Living a Balanced Life! 5. Add to self-control perseverance, Keeping On Even When It Hurts! 6. Add to perseverance godliness, You Must Say 'Yes' Before You Hear the Question! 7. Add to godliness brotherly kindness. 8. Add to brotherly kindness love, which we are calling Ultimate Love! Romans 5:8 reads, But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You can never say that no one cares about you again. Once and for all, the Lord has demonstrated his love for you and that's unquestionable. Someone has said they they asked Jesus how much he loved us and he stretched out his arms and died for us. Wow! No one ever loved like that! When I was younger, I often took up for other folk in school, on the bus, in the neighborhood. Those whom I took up for and often fought for knew that I loved them. However, on occasion, I got whooped! It's not all about just taking up someone's cause, but it's also about winning. Jesus took up for us and in a few weeks, we will celebrate Resurrection Day, which was his vindication that he won! You and I had no hope of ever paying the debt for our sins that we owed. Jesus owed no debt for he had no sin. However, he demonstrated his love for us in that he paid a debt he did not owe for you and me, who had no hope of ever paying our own debt. This is ultimate love! Agape means to lose sight of meeting my own needs in the meeting of the needs of the object of our love. Reminder: You are guaranteed a productive and effective life if these qualities are in you and increasing!