The First Love
Greetings, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to
explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly
Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you.
Today, we seek to understand the meaning of the first love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The First Love
"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou has left thy first love." Revelation,
Chapter, 2 Verse 5.
Brothers and sisters, "He whose mind is stayed on God will remain in perfect peace." God is
absolutely peaceful, and therefore we, his mortal children, experience peace to the extent and to the
degree of our ability to keep our minds stayed on the heavenly Father. And we all know that which
we love the best remains first in our minds and souls.
The heavenly Father reveals himself to us through his Son, Jesus, and in the Spirit. The spirit
revelation of the Father consists in the revelation of divine values and spiritual meanings as well as
the ability to comprehend and live these spiritual values and divine meanings. These meanings and
values should be supreme in our lives, and no other values and meanings should take priority over
them.
When we are supremely focused on loving divinely in a given situation, time and space appear to
dissolve. Time and space are still present but because of the intense supreme focus of our revealing
the Father's love, we transcend time and space. And we even see this somewhat in our material tasks,
when we are so focused to such an extent. And we often exclaim, "Where did the time go?" So how
much more enjoyable is revealing the Father's love through his son, Jesus, in his Spirit of Truth? It
is a marvelous spiritual experience to consciously experience eternal life.
Divine love is an eternal state. To love divinely is to experience eternity. To illustrate further, let us
compare the state of relative love to absolute love--the temporal and the eternal. The state of relative
love is characterized by selfishness. In the temporal state we love an individual because of the things
that they do for us. This may because of the material things they give us, or the way that they make
us feel. But the focus is always on self. If the individual should cease to do these things or should
cease to relate himself to us in a desirable way, than this temporal love disappears. Selfish love is
doomed to fail at some point simply because the love object cannot continually live up to the reasons
why we have chosen to love that individual. In the wake of this cessation follows a sense of betrayal,
anger, and disappointment. When selfish love says it loves someone, it means that it loves what the
person does for them.
In selfish love the relationship is based on receiving. Each partner in the relationship seeks to receive
as much for itself as possible, and only to give that which further helps it to receive more. Conflict
is inevitable. Since selfish love is based on the concept of possession, there is always a chance that
the possessed thing may be taken away. This possibility and sometimes probability give birth to all
the negative emotions associated with the possibility and sometime probability of something
desirable being taken away. And since in the selfish relationship, one can always see something
which one thinks is better and which may belong to someone else, the emotions of envy, jealousy,
insincerity, hatred, deceit, and betrayal all rise to the forefront.
With divine love, love is for its own sake. We love the person simply because she exists. Divine love
is unselfish and is not dependent on anything that the object of its love does or does not do. Divine
love is bestowed for the sake of the love object. The interest is purely unselfish. It seeks only to
nurture and nourish the love object's character in response to this tonic of good will. It is not
interested in controlling or manipulating--only in liberating the love object so that she can be all that
she can be.
With unselfish love, the relationship is based upon giving. Each partner in the relationship seeks to
give as much of themselves as possible, not necessarily of the things they have but to give as much
of themselves. With both partners giving as much of themselves as possible, an amazing thing
happens: they both discover amazing new depths of themselves to give to one another, followed by
even more love to give. In this relationship harmony prevails. No conflict here. And since there is
no sense of possession and no limitation on how much can be given, no antagonistic emotions arise,
but in their place arise emotions of sympathy, compassion, patience, mercy, and forgiveness. No
matter how much an individual gives of himself, there will always remain more to give. This is true
because the source of love that is given is infinite, eternal, and absolute, even God the Father.
Brothers and sisters, we should remain true to the first love because the first love is the pattern which
we are seeking to copy. Remember brothers and sisters: "We love him, because he first loved us."
The constant preoccupation with divine love yields a peace which passes all understanding. No one
or nothing can break our focus if we focus supremely on the absolute love of the Father. And as we
focus, we become more and more like the being that we focus upon, even God our heavenly Father.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of the first love. We hope you find
something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day. Until next time, this
is Dr. James Perry.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
The First Love
