Increase and Abound in Love

"Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. ¹² And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, ¹³ so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

This is one of many prayers Paul spoke according to the will of God for the Thessalonian church.  I appreciated the connection Paul made between walking in love to one another and holiness.  Holiness is not obtained by attending church services, wearing sacred vestments, offering sacrifices or tithes, but is demonstrated by love for God and one another.  Jesus gave His disciples the new command to love one another as He loved them, and this would distinguish them as children of God having been born again by the Holy Spirit.

Another truth which stood out to me is Paul prayed for the LORD to make them "increase and abound in love to one another and to all."  This implies there is room for an increased capacity to receive God's love as well as better expressing it.  Those who trust in Jesus Christ are born again, sanctified unto God for good works.  We are also being sanctified, growing and maturing in faith.  It is easy to fall into the trap of assuming we are loving or we are not; we are right or wrong.  This false dichotomy is at best an oversimplification and at worst a deceitful lie.  The reality is much more complex, messy, and personally confronting.  At the same time it is from God the promise of growth and maturity beyond where we are now, the certain expectation of changing more into who God desires we be.

No matter how much God has transformed you until now, there is room for you to increase and abound in love to one another and to all.  The only way this would be impossible is if you are already as infinitely loving like Jesus Christ is.  Would you admit that at your best you recognise inconsistency, contradictions, even hypocrisy in yourself?  We may say the "right" thing but later realise our motive or timing for saying was selfish and impatient.  Our love flourishes for certain people but the same affection is withheld from others.  God never intended following Jesus to be easy or to become easier over time as we are further sanctified.  I believe the opposite is true, for if it ever became easier to always walk in love towards all there would be less need to consciously seek the LORD in faith and fall upon His mercy--and God's love is not of us.

Our need to increase and abound in love makes us feel like failures and to give up, but the Spirit of God prompts us to look to Jesus with thanksgiving, knowing we are beloved by Him.  Rather than being mired in our past failures which seem to haunt us, we are called to forget the things that are behind (having repented of sin and received forgiveness) and to labour in our pursuit of Christ.  The presence of our loving, merciful, and powerful Saviour Jesus Christ washes clean all sin which seems permanently etched into our past.  Considering how far we have come leads to pride, and obsessing over how far we still need to go can be depressing.  It is far better to praise Jesus we have been granted today in God's presence, that He will help us to press on, and He will never leave or forsake us as HE makes us increase and abound in love to one another and all.