Kenneth Copeland - Walking In The Commandment of Love
— Hello everybody, we're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, glory to God. And we just love you, and we love God, and we're so glad you're with us today. Father, we thank You. We give You praise and honor for these broadcasts. And we call upon You, Sir. You are our God who is love, and we thank You for loving us. We thank You for giving Yourself to us. And today, we thank You for healing. We thank You for deliverance. We thank You for manifestation of Your power. And we give You praise and honor, and we glorify the name of Jesus. And it's in that name we pray and believe that we receive. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Gloria?
— Yes, Sir? I'm trying to impress people how humble I am. Yes, Sir?
— Well, it's working. Um, God, who is love, is good.
— Oh I know it's right.
— Love. I'm talking about God is love is God. God, then, Scripture says, "He is good, and His mercy endures forever". If God had that much bad in Him, there wouldn't be anybody alive.
— That's true.
— You couldn't stand this sorry mess all over the entire earth, going on night and day, just hearing billions of people blaspheme Your name. If you'd had just that much bad in You, you'd kill the whole mess a long time ago.
— You know, one translation says, He's extraordinarily patient.
— Oh, and disposed to do favors.
— To show favors. That's right.
— He is love. Oh, Lord, we thank You for it.
— Bless You, Lord.
— Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory.
— We received that this morning.
— Let's go back over where we were now in I John. We want to read these scriptures again, if you would, please, in I John, Chapter 4. And we began with Verse 8, "He that loveth not knoweth not God". Now, stop there just a moment. And John is not writing this book to the world. He refers to the world in it. But he's talking to my little children. And in writing this, he that loveth not knoweth not God. Well, you have to know God because he's writing this to born-again people. He's writing this to born-again, Holy Ghost-baptized people.
— He's writing this, the first verse, Word says, to his beloved.
— His beloved.
— His family.
— So these are born-again people. So they know God, or they wouldn't be born again. But what he's talking about, you don't know who he is. You don't really know him if you're not a lover, if you're not loving the brethren. That's what the book is about here. If you're not practicing love, you're not practicing walking in the commandment of love. Now, he just takes it for granted here, and he talks about the commandments. And he's talking about not just... he's referring them to the 10 commandments and all the associated commandments with them, but he's referring also to the commandment of Jesus, love the Lord God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, and love the brethren in the 13th chapter of John, 34th verse. Love one another, or love the brethren, even as I have loved you. Now, Romans 5:5 says, "The love of God's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Ghost". So that means he's in here, so love is in here.
— We have the ability to do that.
— We have the ability. All we have to do is make the decision in practice.
— That's right.
— Practice. You have to practice, practice. Practice makes...
— Perfect.
— So that's what this is talking about. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now, go with me down here to the 16th verse. We have known. Now, see here, it said, "He that loveth not knoweth not God. And we have known and believed or had faith in the love that God hath shown to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect". Now, he's not talking about mental... He's not talking about love feelings. You can love when you don't feel like it at all. Bless you, sweetheart. Amen. You can love when you don't feel like loving at all. The Greek word "agape", the working definition of it is it's love and refers to the love of God, who is love. But it's not an act of feelings. There's another Greek word translated love that is natural human love. Of course, in the English language, we don't have two different words to express it with. I wish we did, but you just have to renew your mind to it. And that Greek word "agape" is God didn't love you because He feels like it. He loves you because He decided to. Then it's an act of your will. It is will love. I will. Now, let me put it like this. Give me your hand. It is covenant love. I give you my Word, I love you. Now, that's what God has done for us.
— Amen.
— See, we're reading His Word. He gives us His Word in agape. This is what people in a marriage ceremony, this is what they're supposed to be doing, is entering into a place of covenant, and it's an act of will. If it's only an act of feelings...
— A bond...
— Yeah, yeah. It's the bond of a promise and a covenant. Now, if it's only an act of feeling, you're just getting married like what that old Johnny Cash song, we got married in a fever, yeah, well, it ain't going to last.
— In a fever.
— Now, here's the thing, though. If you're just going by feelings, somebody's going to let somebody down. I was so impressed that when I heard this, I was so impressed that when I heard this, a man proposed to his wife. Lord, may I enter into that? Yes, sir. A man proposed to his wife, and she said, "You'll always be number one in my life". He said, "I hope not, because I'm just a man. And if I'm number one in your life, I'll let you down. But if Jesus is number one in your life, He'll never let you down". Isn't that strong? Now, when a marriage is built on that, oh, it's just like our marriage. Gloria and I, we both know this. I know that Gloria loves Jesus more than she does me. She knows that I love Jesus more than I do her. It's hard. I can't tell the difference, really.
— No, really, no competition.
— But if it came down to it, of course, I would never deny Jesus for you, Gloria, my children, or anybody else, ever. But here's the thing. We both know that. And what the Lord tells us to do is what we're going to do. Whether it looks right to us, it's in His Word, we're going to do it. He loves us, and His plan is so good for us. He is good, and His mercy endures forever because He is love. And he that is born of God loves. That's who we are. And His love has been shed abroad, like I said, in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and to give us the ability to stand in that commandment. Now, let's go here right quick to the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. And notice, "It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to", and here, like I was saying yesterday, right there, Gloria, the word, Lord, is capital L, capital O-R-D, "thy God, the voice of the Lord, who is love, to observe and to do all His commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if you'll hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God". And I'm adding, who is love. See, love plans to bless. That's His whole life, is to bless.
— He spoke those words to bless.
— That's the reason.
— It wasn't an afterthought. That's what He did.
— Now, people take the 10 commandments wrong, like, God just, boy, He's just limiting me, just putting me down. No, no, no. No. Here, and if you'll read the whole thing, don't just get a little copy of the 10 commandments. Read the book of Exodus. Here's what He was saying. Don't have some other fool God before me. Hey, they can't bless you. Hey, I'll bless you. Don't be stealing. Don't be doing that. I'll give you more than you can steal. If you'll live and walk with me and walk by faith, seek ye first the kingdom of love, and all these things will be added unto you, Jesus said. And then He said, "Don't be coveting that man's wife. What's the matter with you, boy? I'll get you one prettier than her. I got you something planned". Ask me how I know. I'll get you something planned that's so good, you're going to thank God every day for it. And I do. Amen.
— Just prepared for you.
— Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. And when I finally got hooked up with God's plan and married this woman here, I want you to know it changed my whole life. It changed everything about me. And the blessing started that day. Glory to God. Amen. So that was the whole idea in the 10 commandments is to get you separated here. Now, here's another thing you need to understand this. If He gives you a commandment that in your flesh you can't keep, and He knew that, then He's going to also provide the way for you to be forgiven for breaking that commandment. And that was the reason for the sacrifices. Don't kill the man, kill the animal. And Jesus became the lamb sacrificed forever. Can you see what love is doing? Love's figuring out a way to get His man and woman back. Glory to God. He can bless, bless, bless, bless, bless. He said, "I even I am He who brought about your transgressions for my own sake, and remember your iniquities no more". For His sake? Yeah. If He remembers your sin, He can't bless you. Love wants to bless. I just got a Texas way of saying that. He's just eat up with it. That's what grace is all about. Grace is God's overwhelming love and desire to treat you and me like sin never even happened. Now, there's a lot more commandments than the 10. God gave 10, but out of that came, oh, there's hundreds of them. Now, if you keep them, here comes the blessing. You don't even have to ask for it. It's there, and it'll just overcome you. All right, let's go over here to the 13th chapter of the book of Romans. Oh, hallelujah, glory be to Jesus. Listen to this. Oh, I went to the first Corinthians instead of Romans because we're going to be over there after a while. Romans 13, Verse 9, "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet". If there be any other commandment, oh, you ought to underline that. You ought to make little stars around it. Glory to God. If there be any other commandment, say it out loud. If there be any other commandment, it is briefly, you can understand it in a second, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, because love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. What is that? That's God fulfilling His own law so you could get blessed.
— I had a thought that I never had before. Which one of these would you be better off doing? Adultery, killing, stealing, lying, coveting? All of those are bad things. They'd work bad things in your life. They'd bring curse in your life.
— Yes, ma'am.
— That's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it?
— That's a no-brainer. That's right.
— Think about this. Love, who is God.
— Yeah, God is love.
— Worketh no ill to his neighbor. Of course, it's talking about us, that love worketh no ill to his neighbor. That's what satisfies the law. I'm not going to steal from you if I love you.
— No.
— And so forth and so on. But God, who is love, can't possibly work ill for His children. And this whole man-made, oh, horrible idea that God is the source of anybody's sickness or anybody's poverty or anybody's death is hell manifest.
— You know, God went to great lengths in the Scripture to show us the curse. These will bring, the things that would bring curse into your life. He did that so you wouldn't have to do that. If you don't do these things, then the curse is not the result. If you do these things that are a curse, you'll get cursed. It's already there. I mean, that's just the way it is.
— Well, you know, he said, "If you walk in the commandments of God, all these blessings come on you and overtake you". In the 15th verse, he said, "If you will not hearken to the voice of God, and so forth, all these curses will come on you and overtake you". And think about it like this, the moment Adam broke with God, the curse was manifest.
— He disobeyed one rule that he was given.
— Well, but it was so serious. The fruit on that, that tree belonged to God. So the fruit on that tree was his tithe. And he stole the tithe. And Malachi 3, it says, you've robbed me. And they said what? You've robbed me. He said, "In tithes and offerings. You've stolen from me. That belongs to me. And you've been using it on yourself". Anyway, the curse was everywhere. You couldn't go anywhere that the curse wasn't there. So it has never gone away. It's been overpowered, but it's never gone away. It's still here because the devil is still here. Now, help me with this, Lord. The devil didn't have to curse you by contacting you. All he had to do was lead you to do and say, the curse was there. It just, I mean...
— The Scripture says, "You do this, and the curse will come on you".
— Because it's already here. Now, let me put it over on the blessing side. I believe I can make it more clear. It's like this. Blessed shall you be in the city. Well, God didn't have to run down there where you are in the city to bless you. No, his blessing has been released. You do that, and it's there. You do this, and the curse is there. You do this, and the blessing is there. Now, you're going to have to use your faith for it, and walk in it, and operate it, and stay in the love of God.
— You've got to find out about it.
— Amen. And we're out of time.
— Already?
— Yeah. Gloria and I'll be back in just a moment.