Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

1 Timothy 1:5

And, if all of our commandments is not love, charity, out of a pure heart and of a good conscience, what is it for?  If we do not end up with a real, un-manipulated and un-faked faith, have we more than just begun?  In all of our getting, get wisdom, for it is the principle thing!

It was out of love that God killed Ananias and Sapphira.  It was out of love that He set an example for the church, just as He did with Sodom and the world.  It was out of love that He killed His only Son so that we would live, living His life.  It was out of love that He sent forth preachers, and prophets, and evangelists, teachers, and apostles, that the Earth might know the only name by which is Salvation, Jesus Christ.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Acts 4:12

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For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

John 3:16-21

This seems to me one of the most commonly referenced and the littlest truly studied passages in the Bible.  It is one of the best tools for evangelism, for it sums up the entirety of the message of Jesus in one little place.  It may be that it is just this writer’s perception that it is one of the littlest studied passages, it maybe that so few people do much in depths studies in the Gospels or otherwise, or, it may just be that it seems that this section is so commonly understood, it must, of course, be understood already.  When we come to think over these words, we can wrongly assume we understand them all.  Yet, as there is no shadow of turning in God, it stands to reason, that if we could plumb the depths of any passage, without taking it grossly out of context, and know the fullness of the weight of the words in the realm of Heaven, we would know Him much better than we know now.  Suffice to say, these words are spirit, and they are life.

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But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:14

When it comes to revival, and revival meetings, in one sense, revival is easy…  Once the flow starts, the miracles happen, the atmospheres change, the going is good…  On another side, we sometimes don’t see a great degree of change in the people that are attending revivals in the short term.

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Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.

1 Peter 1:22

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).  This is what we are aiming for.

We are called to love.  The verse at the beginning indicates our problem.  We cannot love without God (1 John 4:7).  Why?  Because our souls are corrupt without Christ.

We are called to love from a pure heart, because it is only out of pure, sincere motives, that we can truly open up and be open to others, without being hurt.  It is in the place of His perfect love, with no fear, that we are able to truly be brothers.  This is the mark of the authentic gospel.

And, this cannot happen without sincere, gospel faith.  It simply can’t.  When you walk by the Spirit you do not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:16).  It is by faith that we come to know and believe in God’s great love for us (1 John 4:16).  It is in the secret place of Him that we are able to live.

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