The Reflection of Pure 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 shared many revelations of spiritual truth with me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we consider the nature and reflection of pure love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message
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"No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells within us, and his love is perfected in us." 1 John, Chapter 4, Verse 12
Brothers and sisters, pure love is absolutely free of all self-interest. It is for its own sake. This love is the gift of the heavenly Father and lives within our souls, awaiting the opportunity to reflect itself outward and in the process bathing the soul. How do we radiate this pure love? Before preceding further, let us consider a material to help us to grasp the purity of this love.
A mirror reflects an image back at us. Some mirrors are polished to a high degree of reflectivity; others not so polished. But the quality of the reflection depends on the degree of purity. The more impurities are removed from the reflecting surface, the more faithful the portrayal of the image that is reflected back. The cost of the refinement of the reflecting surface is proportional to the degree of refinement, that is, the more pure the surface of the reflecting surface, the greater the cost of the refinement. And this is so because of the labor and material involved in making such a mirror of pure quality. Now we are desirous of having such a mirror to view ourselves in, even though some may not be able to appreciate the quality of a highly refined mirror. They are not concerned with the imperfections in the image reflected back. They are satisfied or not aware of their imperfections.
Now we know that the greater the reflection of this pure love, the greater our joy and sense of well-being. So we are desirous of knowing how to acquire this pure love. The first step in acquiring this reflection of pure love is to recognize our poor reflection. In other words, there must be an awareness of a defect and a desire to reflect a more pure quality of divine love. Like the mirror in the analogy, all impurities must be removed from the reflecting surface that is our souls. We must remove all the impurities of selfish qualities from our reflectors, our souls. But like the analogy, there is a cost to be paid that is directly proportionally to the degree of purity of the reflection. Some are willing to pay the cost of this highly purified product, while others are reluctant to pay the price for this wonderful state.
Consider these parables:
"The kingdom of heaven is also like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man discovered. In his joy he went forth to sell all he had that he might have the money to buy the field."
"The kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant seeking goodly pearls; and having found one pearl of great price, he went out and sold everything he possessed that he might be able to buy the extraordinary pearl."
To obtain this priceless reflection of pure love, we must polish the desires of our souls such that all competing desires within and without are removed. We must polish and polish until our desires reach supreme levels. Then we must pay the cost for obtaining this priceless object of pure affection. We must liberate our wills from selfish attitudes about others. In short, we must pay the price by submitting of our wills to the Father’’s will. How do we do this? How do we learn to submit our will to the Father’’s will? How can we avoid being like Nicodemus?
"Nicodemus was thoroughly sincere. He was deeply impressed but went away bewildered. Nicodemus was accomplished in self-development, in self-restraint, and even in high moral qualities. He was refined, egoistic, and altruistic; but he did not know how to submit his will to the will of the divine Father as a little child is willing to submit to the guidance and leading of a wise and loving earthly father, thereby becoming in reality a son of God, a progressive heir of the eternal kingdom."
We learn to submit our will to the Father’’s will by desire and faith. Nicodemus did not know how to use his faith to enter the Kingdom. He was trying to do it by intellectual means and therefore failed. We must by faith enter the Kingdom of heaven, that is, by wholeheartedly believing that our supreme desire has delivered us into the Kingdom of heaven, whereby we receive that progressive instruction on how to do the Father’’s will in perfection. Once inside the Kingdom of heaven, being born again, we can begin to polish the reflector of our souls to that high degree of purity required to be a pure reflector of the Father’’s love.
Now some of us may have the desire and the will to do the Father’’s will, but being that we lack the moral and spiritual power to execute the Father’’s will in perfection, the Father is merciful. In the Spirit of his Son, Jesus, the Spirit of Truth, is provided all that is needful to propel our desire to supreme levels and to powerize our wills. Such a combination constitutes the reflection of pure love.
What is the character of this love? As the Apostle Paul uttered: "Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not, is not puffed up. It does not behave itself unseemly; it seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. ““
This love is of such flawless quality that it causes the soul to cry out as Paul did, "... I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus or Lord."
Finally under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, pure love winds its way through the hearts of mankind, and some now but many eventually will fall before the irresistible lure. The Spirit of Truth is the way, the truth, and the life. Its guidance can be compared to a buggy pulled by a horse. Since the horse is not familiar with the road, the driver has to pull on the reins to direct its path until it reaches its destination.
The Spirit of Truth guides the direction of the reflectors of this pure love, pointing it where it is needed. "You are destined to live a narrow and mean life if you learn to love only those who love you. Human love may indeed be reciprocal, but divine love is outgoing in all its satisfaction-seeking. The less of love in any creature’’s nature, the greater the love need, and the more does divine love seek to satisfy such need. Love is never self-seeking, and it cannot be self-bestowed. Divine love cannot be self-contained; it must be unselfishly bestowed." When it is thus bestowed, pure love is reflected.
This concludes today's message on understanding the nature and reflection of pure 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
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
BY Dr. James Perry
The Reflection of Pure Love
