If God is love then we who say we know God ought to know how to love. Agapeo love is unselfish and unconditional. Very people can love like that. We can only love like God loves if the Holy Spirit pours the love of God out into our hearts. In other words: until we have tasted divine love we cannot love divinely. God's ways are not ours, yet He makes things simple and easy for us. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He does not complicate things – so there is a simple way to love God. Read on…How to Love
2003/07/12
Apostle Andre Pelser

Three ways to love God is to keep His word, to feed his sheep and to doing what He tells us to do in His word. If you learn to love God in that way it will fulfil the great commandment of loving God and your neighbour as yourself. However, if you have never tasted or experienced God?s love it is no use trying to imitate Him. God?s love is deep love. It is eternal love. It is love that believes against all odds that love conquers all in the end. Love is stronger than death, stronger than the grave, stronger than jealousy and envy. Love ? God?s kind of love ? never fails. The Holy Spirit of God pours that kind of love into our hearts so that we may have hope and that we might be enabled to love our enemies.
Who is your enemy? Who is your greatest enemy? Are you able to look your enemy in the eye and say: ?I love you??
This is the kind of love a mother has for a child ? it never gives us hope no matter what the circumstances are like. A true mother never stops loving her child. But even if a mother would forget her child, God promises never to forget us. He says that He has engraved your name in the palm of His hand. He is aware of you all the time. Isn?t that amazing? The great Creator of the universe is aware of you all the time! He will never forget you. He will never leave of forsake you world without end. He will be with you till the end of time and for eternity!
Who would deny such love? Why do people not trust in God? Because they are not sure and do not really believe that God loves them that much. Most people hate themselves, hate their lives, their conditions ? and God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son so that anyone who believes should not perish but be saved. Would you give your son or daughter to save this world? How much do you love the people of this world? Are people really worth loving ? even if they never return that love?
Is your love unselfish or selfish? Do you expect a return where you love? Does your love envelope have a return address on it? Or can you love unconditionally? Can you love for twenty years? Can you love for a life time?
Oh, if we only knew how much God really loves us we would go through life with much more assurance and confidence. Love drives out all fear. What do you fear? Failure? People? Circumstances? Death? Violence? Accidents? Nightmares? War? Physical pain? Emotional pain? Mental distress? Poverty? Lack? Uncertainty? The future? Your past? The present? Financial disaster? Rejection? Confusion?

If it were possible place all the things you fear in the one scale and the fear of God in the other and see which one weighs the heaviest. Instead of fearing all those other things begin to fear God and begin to do what is right in His sight. Begin to love Him instead of all the things in the world. Make your eye single then your body shall be full of light. Let the Holy Spirit pour out the love of God in your heart so that all other fears will leave.

We need to learn to walk in faith and to operate in love ? like Jesus did.

There are three things we can start doing: keep the word, do what it tells you and feed the sheep.

Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Every time Peter affirmed his love for the Master Jesus gave Him a simple instruction to prove His love: feed my sheep; feed my sheep; feed my lambs!

How can you keep the word of God?
How do you do what He tells you to do in His word?
How can you feed His sheep?

Love is agapao in Greek and it means to ?love dearly and be content with that person or thing that you love?.
Feed in Greek is ?bosko? and it means to promote the spiritual well-being of others.
The second time he tells Peter to feed the flock he uses the Greek word ?poimeino? that refers more to governing and ruling well. It gives the image of a shepherd looking for suitable pasture for his flock so that they can be well nourished. The root word here is ?poimen? and it speaks of caring for those who are committed to your teaching, in other words, you cannot pastor or shepherd everyone that comes to church, only those who are committed to receive the word God gives to you to give to them. In the near East the shephers would watch out for their flocks and even defend them against lions or bears like David the shepherd boy. They would heal the wounded and find the lost or trapped sheep. During the second World War a shepherd was a pilot who shepherded a damaged plane back to base by flying next to it to maintain eye contact.

The third time Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him he uses the word ?phileo? which actually asks the question slightly differently: ?are you my friend and do you actually like doing something for me that I ask you to do ? as a friend would?? It also gives the picture of a bridegroom who sends his friend to ask the hand of his beloved in marriage and to secure that marriage deal for him.

This made Peter feel offended and sorrowful: ?opeio? means he was uneasy and had scruples about that question. In his heart of hearts he started questioning Jesus? motives for asking him these questions publicly. Why is He doing this? He is embarrassing me in front of all the other guys. Why isn?t He asking them the same questions?

Then after all the question and answer routine ? if that was not enough ? Jesus predicts that Peter would one day bear a yoke in his old age that he would not have chosen?in other words?are you prepared to suffer for my sake too? If you are grieved now because I question you concerning your love for me, how will your love last if it is really put to the test?

Gird yourself is ?zonnumi? and the root word ?zugos? refer to a yoke or a burden of an ox or a slave and it refers to the laws of Moses and the yoke of Christ. Can Christ do with you what He pleases? Will your love allow Him to do whatever He wants to with your life? Will it please you if it pleases Him? Or will you say, ?I am sore displeased with the way things are working out in my life. This is not what I planned to do with my life. This is not the way things were supposed to happen. It is not fulfilling the goals I set for my life.?

Oh dear friend, Jesus Christ is testing the hearts of those who say they are His followers in these days for He is about to do some amazing things, but He wants to be sure that you are totally committed to Him. He tested Peter to the extreme because He wanted to use Him on the day of Pentecost to preach to 3 000 people and see them get saved. He wanted to send Him to towns to raise the dead and to preach to families until the Holy Spirit fell on them and they all began to speak in tongues! He wanted to know if Peter would go through public beatings and imprisonment for His name?s sake.

How much do you love the Saviour? The One who died for your sins? The One who died in your place? Do you love Him today ? or will you turn Him away?

Carry in Greek is ?phero? and it means to endure the rigour of a thing by carrying it. It means to bear it patiently until it is produced or announced ? like a ship carrying cargo over the waters until it reaches its destinations. Will that ship be able to wither the storms? Will the ballast in the bottom of th