Loving God is not only our purpose and our destiny, it is the path to freedom. We are led astray if we envision progress in the Christian life as being the absence of certain besetting sins. We think of holiness as being loosed from our sinful habits, but this is not the way. This must not be our focus.
Our progress is not to be measured in what we stop doing, it is to be measured by the increase of our love for God. Love creates a compelling motivation to live a life of love to God and our neighbor. As our love for God grows we are less interested in rules and regulations because the love begins to take command of everything within us. We are no longer trying to obey any law except the law of love, and as this new impulse of love molds and shapes us, we find ourselves sinning less and less. This is what Paul meant when he wrote that “Christ’s love controls us.” (2 Cor. 5.14 NLB)
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