The message last time was about hatred, but today we see the key that unlocks the prison door.
 
Galatians 5:14 says,
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
 
The key to freedom is AGAPE which is divine love.  The fruit of love produced in the heart of the yielded Believer by the Holy Spirit.
 
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.  Against such there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22-23
 
The chief essence of agape is self-sacrifice.  That means the death to self and that defeats sin, since sin is self-will, self gratification, self, self, self, self.
 
We just read that we are to love our neighbor, but Jesus said in Matthew 5:44,
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
 
We are to love!  A basic truth is: there can be no agape without forgiveness.  Not man’s kind, but God’s!  It is APHESIS which means a dismissal, release, liberty, a letting go as if it never happened.
 
Jesus tells us in Mark 12:25,
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
 
The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3:12-13,
“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, 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.”
 
Then we have  Paul reminding us in Ephesians 5:32,
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.”
 
In Matthew 18:21-22  (Peter asked and Jesus answered),
“Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?’
Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’”  (That means always.  Read again Colossians 3:13)
 
The secret of the victorious free life is found in subjection to the Person of the Holy Spirit.  It is as Believers keep yielded to/under the control of the Holy Spirit and to refuse to yield to the flesh.
 
Romans 6:12-13,
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, BUT present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  (My emphasis)
 
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. (by grace you have been saved).  Ephesians 2:4-5 
 
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,”  Romans 5:8 
 
‘We love because He first loved us.”  1 John 4:19 
 
Christ’s love is our standard!
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.  This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”  John 15:9 & 12
 
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a gives us the description of this love;
“Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all thing, believes all things hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails…”
 
“…May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men…”  1 Thessalonians 3:12
 
Only by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us can agape be expressed through us, therefore let us allow Him to have His perfect way in our lives so that ‘love may abound to all men’.
All praise to you Most Holy God!  Amen