GOD'S PROMISES #015 PODCAST about LOVE 9-minute video edbradyradio

From a Christian theological perspective, love is not merely a fleeting human emotion or a passive sentiment; it is the very essence of God’s character and the foundational reality of the cosmos. As the Apostle John boldly declares, "God is love." This divine love is characteristically agape—a self-sacrificing, unconditional, and choosing love that seeks the absolute highest good of the other. In the Christian narrative, this love is most perfectly and radically demonstrated in the incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is a love that initiates reconciliation with humanity while we are yet broken, establishing a framework where receiving divine love naturally compels us to extend that same grace outward to the world.

When Jesus Christ walked the earth, He radically redefined and centralized love as the ultimate marker of true discipleship. In the Gospel of John, during His final hours with His disciples, Jesus elevated the ancient command to love into something uniquely revolutionary, stating:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

The "newness" of this commandment lies in its radical standard: believers are no longer called to just love their neighbors as themselves, but to love others as Jesus loved them—sacrificially, enduringly, and without boundary.

Consequently, for the Christian, loving others becomes both a spiritual duty and the supreme expression of faith. Jesus famously summarized the entirety of the Old Testament law into two intertwined realities: loving God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind, and loving one's neighbor as oneself. In the economy of God's kingdom, love is the currency that dismantles hostility, heals systemic brokenness, and crosses societal divides. To live a life of Christian love means actively seeking the flourishing of everyone we encounter—including our enemies—thereby mirroring the transformative, redemptive love of the Creator to a world deeply in need of grace.  

God's Promises is created by Pastor Ed Brady.  For more information on Brady Ministries and to donate to support them, go to the website edbradyradio - dot - com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey Pastor Adden, I'm one of your listeners and I love your show. Got nine minutes? Let's open the Bible and be inspired.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

How many commandments are there? Well, there's ten commandments, right? Well, if you look in the New Testament, there's an 11th commandment, a new commandment that he gave us, and he being Jesus, it's in John 13, 34 and 35. A new commandment I give you. This is from Jesus. A new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And by this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. That's your 11th commandment, commandment of love. And that's our topic today, again on God's Promises. I say again because I've done a video on love before. I decided to do a second one on love simply because, well, the topic is so big, it's hard to cover it in just one God's promises podcast. Let's take a look at 1 John 4, 16 and 21. And we have known and believed that love has God for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must also love his brother or sister. 1 John 4, 16 and 21. I respectfully suggest that you write down the scripture verses that I give you. You can study it in your own personal Bible study time, okay? John 16, 27. For the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me. Me in that sentence is Jesus. Jesus is speaking to us in John 16, 27. For the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me, Jesus, and have believed that I came forth from God. In Romans 5:8, it says, But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's one of the things that's important for us to remember that we must come to Jesus, invite him into our heart as our personal Lord and Savior, even before we've cleaned up all of our sins. As humans, we're going to sin. God knows that. We have sins past, present, and future. And they're all forgiven by what Christ did for us on the cross over 2,000 years ago. Romans 5 8, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us. Love is something that is from God because God is love. And you're created in God's image, right? God is love, you are love. That's why it's natural for us to say, I love you, to another person, whether it's your husband or your kids, your wife, it's important for us to say, I love you on a regular basis. John 3 16, perhaps the most famous verse in the entire Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, will have everlasting life. You won't perish, you won't go to hell, simply because you've accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior in your heart. Romans 5 8. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You don't need to clean up your act before you come to God. You don't need to figure out how to be perfect because you're never going to be perfect. It's important for us to remember that God wants us to be saved now. Salvation is now, today, not after you get your act cleaned up. Okay? There's nothing, height or depth, left or right, there's nothing in the world that can prevent God from loving us. And it's so important for us to return that love. What's the best way for us to return that love? Well, one way is to accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. Say to God, I have sinned, please forgive me. Jesus forgave you over 2,000 years ago on the cross when he died for your sins. Your sicknesses, they were taken care of when he was scourged, when he was beaten. By his stripes, we were healed. The healing that's available in that incident is Jesus taking those stripes, those scars on his back for you and for me, and all sickness, we can receive healing, not because it comes from outside in, but it's in us already, simply because we believe in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. I'd love to share more with you on God's promises, and I will right after this.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

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SPEAKER_00 5:43

Welcome back to God's Promises. I'm Pastor Ed Brady, and today we study again a second video on love in the series of videos we call God's Promises. Take a look on social media, on YouTube and other sources as well, and you'll find videos on love and anger and discouragement and disappointment. I've made a lot of videos, and it's not for my glory, but for the glory of God to spread the gospel throughout the world in a video session. We also do a radio program. We do, in fact, three radio programs: Country Gospel, Sunrise, and God's Promises. Those are available on my website for radio stations. Over 700 free radio shows for radio stations to download and play every day, every week. In fact, at this point in time, we have over 300 radio stations all over the world broadcasting our programs, 700 free programs, on my website, edbradyradio.com. Our topic today is love. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. I'm reading from 1 John 4, 7 and 8. Write down the scriptures, study them later, okay? Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Well, if God is love and God created you in his image, what are you? You are love. God is holy. God created us in his image. What are you? You are holy. We are covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not by our own righteousness, by what he did for us on the cross over two thousand years ago. It's justification. It's just as if we never sinned, because Jesus took the penalty for our sin on himself on the cross. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the payment for our sins. 1 John 4, 10, 11, and 12. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us. In other words, if we're love, people will see God in us. That's beautiful. Thanks for joining me for these videos, God's Promises Podcast. Thanks for watching. Thanks for your donations, and thanks most of all for your prayers.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

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