When we love the way God intends us to (but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God....by love unfeigned) we become living proof that He is real and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We show that we are indeed witnesses of Him (and ye are witnesses of these things - Father, I WILL that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold My glory) because we freely and willingly share with others the love He freely and willingly shares with us. We love the way He loves - this is our greatest witness of Him for it is unique in all the earth - a Divine,  supernatural love that transcends the flesh. The fruit of this kind of love is souls.   

 The reward for seeking Him is Him!

If He is love (i speak as a fool) then the Holy Spirit is love. Therefore, when we are baptized into the Holy Spirit (as we all should be) we are baptized into love! When we are filled with the Holy Spirit,  we are filled with love! When we walk in the Spirit,  we are walking in love, in obedience to love, not in the flesh. 

 

  The flesh practices a pseudo love - a self-centered, carnal love. Even when those in the flesh do good works it is still selfish because they do it to feel good about themselves or make themselves look good. They do it to be seen of men, to receive the glory of man. Many rich seek to justify themselves  by making sure everyone knows about their charitable acts. Their love remains self-centered, ultimately all about them, never truly sacrificial,  a "what can i get out of this" kind of love. 

So to summarize so far - all the sermons in the world, all the talk, talk, talk which Christians love to engage in each Sunday, means nothing if we do not love the way God loves (see 1 Corinthians 13). Actions first, words second. Actions without words are ok, words without actions are never ok. God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance.  Man looks at the outward appearance,  not the heart. It's easy to fool our fellow man by going to church every week and singing songs and quoting scriptures but God isn't fooled by any of it. It's what we do in secret that pleases Him most. It's what we do when we know He's the only one who sees us. Our actions determine our reward- not our words. Our words are empty and meaningless if they are without actions.  "But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have no works? Can faith (alone) save him? Now let's substitute the word "love" for "faith", for this famous passage of scripture is talking about love in action- "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food; and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, not withstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? Even so love, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone". 

It's alone because it's kept to itself- in words only. Words mean nothing without actions! If everyone in America who claims to be a Christian loved the way God loves, there would be no homeless left anywhere. For that matter, there'd be no more hungry either. The poor of our nation would never again miss a meal or lack for shoes. "Let us not love in word, neither in tongue but in deed and in truth". Show me your love by your deeds. Show me your faith in the God of love by loving people. "I love you" only means something when it comes from our hearrs and we give our lives in sacrafice to the ones we claim to love (remind you of someone)? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". I always thought he meant literally die for others but he also means to die to self for others, to lay our lives diwn in service to one another."i command you that you should love one another, that you lay down your lives for one another, that you love each other as i love you. I lay my life down for the sheep, therefore doth my Father love me, because i lay down my life in service to him. No man takes it from me but i lay it down of myself ".

   All our lives we are taught in churches to pay attention to what we wear, to what we eat, to how much we give, when all along He wants us to give it all away, our very lives, in sacrafice to Him and when we give our lives to Him - He in turn takes us and gives us to one another "take, eat, this is My body, broken for you".... we are his body, broken for one another, if we submit to him. He pours his love into our hearts then shares it with others, teaching us how to be just like Him. He cares for the poor, and those poor in love, orphans, fatherless and widows and strangers. This life laid down is the clearest proof of the Godhead the world will ever see. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. (If i do not add actions to the love i profess, do not believe i am of Christ), but if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me and i in Him". 

This is how we distinguish the false from the real. Cult leaders and wolves in sheep's clothing take and take from people, giving little in return except pompous sermons and a sense of belonging. They do not lay down their lives for the sheep, they require the sheep to lay down their lives for them. 

Part two in 5 days