“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:14.

The words above, “But above all these things” refer us back to the previous verses in this chapter where we are told to.

“…put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” Colossians 3:12b-13.

The J. B. Phillips version of the New Testament phrases Colossians 3:14 in this manner.

“And above everything else, be truly loving, for love is the golden chain of all the virtues.” Colossians 3:14.

Love is indeed, “the bond of perfection” (“the golden chain”) and without love these other virtues would have no life to them when seen by unbelievers.

One could be kind, but the world talks about committing “random acts of kindness” (I assume some of you have seen that one before), so kindness might not always be seen as something of Christ.

A person could be humble and meek, but without real love energizing those characteristics, the world just sees a person as weak.

As for bearing with one another and forgiving one another; without love such an attitude is nearly impossible. No love, no forgiveness, a simple equation.

The world has a stale, sickly view of love that has no place in reality. Songs from the sixties are a good example of the futility of trying to propagandize love and get everyone to suddenly see the light.

The Beatles 1967 hit “All You Need is Love” and the song “What the World Needs Now is Love” sung by Jackie DeShannon in 1965, again in 1968 she sang, “Put a little Love in Your Heart”.

Beautiful songs, and all of them great hits, did not change the hearts of their listeners’ one iota.

The Viet Nam war still raged on because the U. S. Government was waging limited warfare and the Viet Cong did not say, “Gosh there is just not enough love in the world” and lay down their weapons.

Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Starship would still scream “Kill the pigs, kill the pigs!”

The Manson Family still butchered a pregnant Sharon Tate; drugs from the hippie generation permanently drove the crime rate through the roof, and Haight-Ashbury became a graveyard for brain fried hippies.

This naïve view can be seen today on the bumper stickers that some have on their cars that say “coexist” with the letters being made up of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other religious symbols.

The truth is that the human race is much happier killing each other than they are in loving one another. And no matter how many times we sing “We are the World” and chant the word love, love, love; the love fairy is not going to come along and wave her magic wand and the world will suddenly right itself.

There is one tragic line in Jackie DeShannon’s song “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” that haunts me; “Another day goes by, still the children cry, put a little love in your heart.”

It has been fifty-two years since those words were sung, there have been many days gone by and still the children cry.

Mankind’s utter failure to act even human is highlighted by those first eight words, “another day goes by, still the children cry…”

Child sex trafficking, and child abuse is pandemic, pedophiles are often paroled early only to continue to murder the souls of more children.

Where is the love that this hippie generation that now infests government on all judicial and legislative levels sang about? In fact love is not necessary, where is the moral outrage?

Homes are broken and without a father. Single mothers struggle to care for their children, do household chores and work while most of their money is used up by childcare.

Other mothers are drug addicts who prostitute themselves while the children roam the streets.

Whether from a good home or from a bad one, the schools are the same, they teach children how to be good socialists, without teaching them anything about the true history of this country nor how to read, write, or do arithmetic.

And when they graduate, they will have no real skills and will always vote for left wing candidates.

Candidates who will continue this nation’s death spiral down into a third world country ruled by greedy elitists who would normally have no business around a household budget.

There are good sensitive moral people who hate the things that are going on in this country, people who are charitable, are loving families, and good neighbors.

But Christian love as we have in this study is only possible through the Holy Spirit and it embraces other Christians, the body of Christ (the church made up of true believers), and those in need around them.

The love we are told to put on in this passage is a brotherly love, and has the meaning of affection, good-will, love, benevolence, and it is a fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit [the out-workings] of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.

“Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words” has this to say about love, “Love can be known only from the actions it prompts.”

The Christian’s actions could be broken down in this manner. First and of foremost importance, the Christian submits to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within them, this is the Spirit of Christ.

When allowed to do this, the Spirit fills the heart of the believer with love.

When the Christian allows love to work through them it shows itself in tender mercies, love is shown in kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, and in patiently bearing with one another and forgiving one another.

This only works in power when the believer allows God to work through them. Can you now see why we are told to put off:

“…anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language” Colossians 3:8.

Then in verse 9 we are told not to lie to each other.

“Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds…” Colossians 3:9.

It is only when we put off these vices, with the Spirits help that we can put on the virtues mentioned in Colossians 3:12-13, posted here on 4-20-20.

Before we move on, I would like to share something with you.

Some seven books in the New Testament have been studied in this blog including a few Psalms and I have found that the one underlying theme that is continually repeated is love.

Because of this one can only see that love is important to God and if it is that important to Him, it should be important to us. Jesus has already stated that by our love for one another the world can see that we are of Him.

“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.

We are told that because God loved us He gave His only begotten Son Jesus (whom He has loved eternally) as a sacrifice for our sins.

We also know that Jesus, because He loved us, went willingly to the cross for us, even though He had the power at all times to just walk away.

Scripture also makes it plain that God the Father continually has His eye on us, we are never alone, and His ear is continually open to our prayers, and that includes our complaints.

There is a reason for all of this:

“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16.

“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8.

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation [payment] for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.

Here it is proven that God is love, He is not a concept or an ideal, He is a real person with real emotions, and we are made in His image. But above all things God is love, a real personal God who really loves you.

Do not try to make Him into anything else by using human philosophy or liberal theology, He is a real person.

If you believe the word of God, then I want you to accept in your heart the fact that God is love and that He really loves you more than anyone else ever has or ever will.

Too many people today visualize God as a white bearded angry old man who just cannot wait for us to die so He can rail on us for being such sinful creatures.

Can you see Him there, red faced, veins bulging on His forehead, spittle foaming at the corners of His mouth as He pounds on the table and screams at you for being such an evil useless creature?

That is the Devil’s lie my friend, and the Scriptures quoted above prove it, God is love. You can accept that or you can believe in the demon god described above.

If you will permit me, I would like to ask you to say out loud (if you are alone); “God is love, and He loves me.”

Repeat if necessary, and believe what you have said. Oh, and never, never ever forget it, even in your darkest hours.

This message is meant for both the Christian and the unbeliever who may be reading this. If you have never accepted Christ as your Savior I urge you to do so right now, tomorrow may be too late.

God does indeed love every person on earth, but He cannot be of much help to those who willfully reject Him.

Colossians 3:14 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-21-14, updated on 4-23-20.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.