Always Increasing

…may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

In the beginning, God created mankind in his image of love, and Christ himself  taught the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others. In this prayer, Paul again reveals his desire for the churches to increase in love for other believers and for all people. 

If you’re not intentional and seeking to grow in love, it can be easy to only love people the way that you do right now. This prayer is an encouragement that we all can and should increase in love and become more loving all the time. As God does this work in us all, we are being reshaped back to the original image God created us in.

Paul connects the increase and overflow of love in a believer directly to the establishment of holiness in their life.

Sometimes Christians struggle to believe they can actually be holy and blameless before God. Because of this, their focus can drift more toward how they can never be that way. However, in this prayer, Paul teaches that as believers increase in love, God is the one who establishes their hearts blameless in holiness. If you’ve felt this way before, we encourage you to focus less on how you think you can’t be holy and instead focus more on seeking God to increase your love.

We are praying that your love would abound and overflow!