The Perfect Gift of Love

Scripture: I John 3:23

This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

Today is a blessed day in which we have been granted the privilege to remember the birth of Christ, and what His birth means to the world. Through the birth of Jesus Christ, we have been given the opportuniy to receive Him into our hearts as our personal Lord and Savior for the abundant life on earth; and eternal salvation in Heaven.

We have been given the awesome gift of love, straight from the heart of God; for the everlasting salvation of our souls. God has shown us how much He loves us, by giving us the precious life of His Son. All God commands of us, is that we believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ. As we believe on the name, we become more like Him. We begin to: act like Him, talk like him, move like Him, and to be like Him in everything that we do. We become as He is in our thinking, and we begin to desire the things of His heart.

When we truly believe in Him, He will transform us into the image of His dear Son; and we will be a light to a world that does not know the love of God. With the love of God so graciously planted into our hearts, we can love one another, as we continue to show the love of God to the world. This love comes only from God, who gives us the ability to love, as He loves.

Reflection:
If you have not had the experience of receiving the perfect gift of Love "Jesus Christ," into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior, ask Him right now; to come into your heart; and He will come into your heart, and give you His love; which will enable you to love Him, to love yourself, and to love others (Romans 10:9).

Prayer:
Father God, I thank you for the precious gift of love that you have given to me; but not just to me, to the entire world. I thank you for continually changing me, day-by-day into an image of your love, to touch the lives of those that have never had a father; or, have never had the experience of a spritual Father in You. I thank you for the opportunity to serve in such a magnitude as to express your love to others. In Jesus Name, I pray, Amen.

Strong's Concordance Definitions:

is His commandment: 1785
1) an order, command, charge, precept, injunction
a) that which is prescribed to one by reason of his office
2) a commandment
a) a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done

1) a precept relating to lineage, of the Mosaic precept concerning the priesthood
2) ethically used of the commandments in the Mosaic law or Jewish tradition
that we believe: 4100
1) to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
a) of the thing believed

1) to credit, have confidence
b) in a moral or religious reference

1) used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul
2) to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith
3) mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith

2) to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity
a) to be intrusted with a thing
in the name: 3686
1) name: univ. of proper names
2) the name is used for everything which the name covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering, the name, i.e. for one's rank, authority, interests, pleasure, command, excellences, deeds etc.
3) persons reckoned up by name
4) the cause or reason named: on this account, because he suffers as a Christian, for this reason
 
of His Son: 5207
1) a son
a) rarely used for the young of animals
b) generally used of the offspring of men
c) in a restricted sense, the male offspring (one born by a father and of a mother)
d) in a wider sense, a descendant, one of the posterity of any one,
1) the children of Israel
2) sons of Abraham
e)) used to describe one who depends on another or is his follower
1) a pupil
2) son of man
a) term describing man, carrying the connotation of weakness and mortality
b) son of man, symbolically denotes the fifth kingdom in Daniel 7:13 and by this term its humanity is indicated in contrast with the barbarity and ferocity of the four preceding kingdoms (the Babylonian, the Median and the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman) typified by the four beasts. In the book of Enoch (2nd Century) it is used of Christ.

c) used by Christ himself, doubtless in order that he might intimate his Messiahship and also that he might designate himself as the head of the human family, the man, the one who both furnished the pattern of the perfect man and acted on behalf of all mankind. Christ seems to have preferred this to the other Messianic titles, because by its lowliness it was least suited to foster the expectation of an earthly Messiah in royal splendour.

3) son of God
a) used to describe Adam (Lk. 3:38)
b) used to describe those who are born again (Lk. 20:36) and of angels and of Jesus Christ
c) of those whom God esteems as sons, whom he loves, protects and benefits above others

1) in the OT used of the Jews
2) in the NT of Christians
3) those whose character God, as a loving father, shapes by chastisements (Heb. 12:5-8)
d) those who revere God as their father, the pious worshippers of God, those who in character and life resemble God, those who are governed by the Spirit of God, repose the same calm and joyful trust in God which children do in their parents (Rom. 8:14, Gal. 3:26 ), and hereafter in the blessedness and glory of the life eternal will openly wear this dignity of the sons of God. Term used preeminently of Jesus Christ, as enjoying the supreme love of God, united to him in affectionate intimacy, privy to his saving councils, obedient to the Father's will in all his acts

Jesus: 2424
Jesus = "Jehovah is salvation"
1) Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind, God incarnate
2) Jesus Barabbas was the captive robber whom the Jews begged Pilate to release instead of Christ
3) Joshua was the famous captain of the Israelites, Moses' successor (Ac. 7:45, Heb. 4:8)
4) Jesus, son of Eliezer, one of the ancestors of Christ (Lu. 3:29)
5) Jesus, surnamed Justus, a Jewish Christian, an associate with Paul in the preaching of the gospel
(Col. 4:11)

Christ: 5547
Christ = "anointed"
1) Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God
2) anointed

and love: 25
1) of persons
a) to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly

2) of things
a) to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing
one another: 240
1) one another, reciprocally, mutually

Just: 2531
1) according as
a) just as, even as
b) in proportion as, in the degree that
2) since, seeing that, agreeably to the fact that
3) when, after that

as He commanded: (1325)
1) to give
2) to give something to someone
a) of one's own accord to give one something, to his advantage
1) to bestow a gift
b) to grant, give to one asking, let have
c) to supply, furnish, necessary things
d) to give over, deliver
1) to reach out, extend, present
2) of a writing
3) to give over to one's care, intrust, commit
a) something to be administered
b) to give or commit to some one something to be religiously observed
e) to give what is due or obligatory, to pay: wages or reward
f) to furnish, endue
3) to give
a) to cause, profuse, give forth from one's self
1) to give, hand out lots
b) to appoint to an office
c) to cause to come forth, i.e. as the sea, death and Hell are said to give up the dead who have been engulfed or received by them
c) to give one to someone as his own

1) as an object of his saving care
2) to give one to someone, to follow him as a leader and master
3) to give one to someone to care for his interests
4) to give one to someone to whom he already belonged, to return

4) to grant or permit one
a) to commission

References:
Blue Letter Bible. "John's First Epistle - 1 John 3 - (NASB - New American Standard Bible)." Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2009. 25 Dec 2009. http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=1Jo&c=3&t=NASB

Higgins, S. (2009). The Perfect Gift of Love. Devotions for Thought. Http://www.devotionsforthought.blogspot.com, http://www.higginspublishing.com