Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And WALK IN LOVE, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.(Eph 5:1,2). Walk in love. What does that mean? It means live and regulate your life in love. It means to daily conduct yourself in love. This involves how you talk to people, kind deeds, giving little gifts, how you interact with people – how you do everything. Even how you look at people matters. Do you know there is a loving look and a look of mischief? Yes, there is. Someone can just look at you without saying a word and you would feel insulted and hurt. So 1 Cor 16:14 admonishes us to Let all that you do be done with love.

1 Thessalonians 2:7

But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children

One trait of love is that LOVE IS VERY GENTLE. Or to add some big vocabulary in the mix you can say, LOVE IS CHIVALROUS. Please don’t tell me, your temperament makes you ungentle. You are choleric so you are always hot and vengeful. No darling. You don’t have to always be abrasive and harsh. You are God’s child, and there must be some delicateness and tenderness about you. Intentionally practice it and you will perfect it.

It’s not just about what you Say, or what you Give, or what you Do, but HOW you Say, Give and Do them very well matters.

Ephesians 4:15a says,

“But speaking the truth in love”. It means even truth can be said in love or not in love which ends up injuring the person rather than helping. We might be correcting someone, but let’s color it with love. Let those words drop with love and gentleness from your lips. We are love beings made after the likeness of a love God – LET LOVE OOZE OUT OF YOU. Hallelujah!

Yes, love gives; but not all giving are by love. Some people give in such a rude and unlovely way, such that their gifts become repulsive.

I Corinthians 13:3

‘And though I bestow all my goods to feed the  poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.’

You may give all you have to the poor and yet it is not out of love. You may give your body to be burned and yet that act is not out of love. It matters what drives your giving, and it matters how you do your giving.  A husband can give to his wife and to his children in  such a way that his giving becomes a curse. He throws the money or object of giving to them  like the way you will throw a bone to an ugly smelly dog, and say, “there, take it”. There is no glory or profit in giving like that. You are better off keeping that money to yourself. So Romans 14:16 says, ‘Let not your good be evil spoken of.’ Yes, you can do a good deed, but the manner in which you do it makes it evil. Let God’s word transform your way of life unto excellence.

GIVE LIKE JESUS DID – COLOR YOUR GIVINGS WITH LOVE AND TENDERNESS.

II Corinthians 9:7‭-‬9 says,

So  let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”

When Love gives, it does not do it out of necessity and it does not give grudgingly. Giving out of necessity means giving under compulsion. It means giving which is imposed due to circumstances or law or duty or calamity. You are giving because there is ‘Kofi and Ama’ going on. If you don’t give, Kwaku will be last. Philantropic giving, although a good thing, falls here as well: There is a flood somewhere and you are required(and sometimes impelled) to donate in support of helping the victims, so you give. It’s good, people will be helped but this is ‘giving out of necessity’. There is a better way to give.  All “Appeal for funds” are in that category as well. Why must your funds be appealed for, before you give?

Love’s giving is not like that. It must come from a JOYOUS PROMPT within you. You see a need and love flows from your heart to meet that need by giving, without any external influence and without any appeal. It’s more than philantropy. And it’s beyond the grasp of necessity. YOU HAVE BECOME A LOVE GIVER – A CHEERFUL GIVER. Hallelujah!

Most of our churches have not helped us to become love givers – they have constantly created necessities for us to give. This must change. Amen!

The conclusion of the matter is this:

I Corinthians 16:14

LET ALL THAT YOU DO BE DONE WITH LOVE

Be blessed mightily in Jesus name!

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