Loves Spectrum July 6th,2026

A spectrum is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties that blend to form a continuum. The term is used in various fields, such as optics, physics, biology, mathematics, and social science, to describe different phenomena and concepts. 

This may be one of my most ambitious writing forays into something most people gain very little knowledge about. And then stop as if satisfied. I’m not yet satisfied because I know just enough to drive me further into the seeking realm of God’s Spirit where all love, all power, all truth, and a healthy dose of human understanding serves me enough to allow for a good vacation!

I’m not content to just pray for others and see them comforted by the Lord.

That is a great blessing in itself. Seeking alone indicates a desire to fulfill someone else and also, possibly ones’ self. That becomes a problem and possibly a Love block to hinder ministry. Self satisfaction as a goal is rather entangling and deceptive. I am of the opinion that if you are drawn to serve the Lord in some arena, there will most likely be a time of wrestling with vision, and demons, personal and otherwise. 

Grow as You Go 

Riding a bike for the first time is not quite a good analogy, but maybe it is a starting point. Usually the bike is too big and your balance is being refined, and if you don’t have a good teacher, they might yell at you as if you should know what they are talking about! I had a desire within me since my little brother died of cancer at age 17 to find out how to heal the sick. Debra had experience praying with her dad and I wanted to learn. God who gave me the desire also provided a training lesson. We were blessed with a couple of friends who actually had experience and were willing to teach. The fellow we watched being prayed for had a nasty sports accident and severely injured his back. When we all arrived at the house, this man was laying face down on the floor, in excruciating pain, and had been there for hours. Once prayer commenced, we noticed the injured man trying to push himself  up from the floor, and as you might guess it took him some minutes before he actually kneeled. What happened next totally lit our fire as we all witnessed him stand on his feet all by himself, crying and praising God! All his pain had disappeared in the sight of us all! We all were touched and moved by the power of God displayed that night. 

Love healed the man that night and touched all who were present in the room. Was that enough to motivate us in the direction of praying for others? Certainly! Did we realize that it wasn’t people who healed the man? Yes! Did that event draw us closer to God? Yes. Question. Was self benefit a part of being there that night? Somewhat. Desire to see God do the supernatural. Was it bad? No.Then what? Perhaps it was just the understanding I had at the time. My love had to grow to catch up with the Jesus kind of Love or motivation which is: I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 

Love’s Spectrum

The least and greatest expressions of Love according to the Word is:  

                                                      Least

Matthew 24:12  “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” (Not hot)  means to chill  

Notice the correlation from lawlessness being increased, and the love of many growing cold? Can we relate this to the day we live in? You betcha, Minnesota! Lawlessness is where it is at! This is the lowest form of love’s expression that I could find and they still had a pulse!

Next is Luke 6:32 “If you love those who love you, what grace or favor is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.” (Until they don’t love them anymore)! Did you ever think that there will never be a time when Jesus/God quits loving you? Never! He is the only one who can really fill that love need in your life. He is intimately acquainted with your future and what it will take to satisfy you.     

Matthew 10:37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is (not worthy) of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is (not worthy) of Me”.  not worthy is  (not possessing worth or excellence of qualities, not virtuous).   Since God our Father is the author of Dad and Mom’s existence, (they are created beings), and are subject to him the creator, not the other way around. To elevate anyone or thing above God is to create an Idol between you and the Lord. Dangerous territory. It sounds like a block to God’s Love getting through. The kingdom we are a part of requires us to live by the rules or commandments God set forth from the beginning of life. I seem to remember a command that we should have no other gods before Him! Repent and reset your affections if need be!

Matthew 5:44” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (more grace, favor shown than Luke 6:32) loving those who love you is easier than loving enemies! Jesus did this the night they came to arrest Him and you remember Peter cut off one of the servants ears. Jesus rebuked Peter, then healed the servants’ ear and by doing so, loved him.                                                                                   

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Wow, Jesus trusting us with His power! He is saying (follow My example)  possible greater expression than loving enemies because of having to live with others constantly.

                                                                                                                                    John 14:21 “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my Word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  =  abide, or abiding love, maybe daunting because the God of the universe is coming to live in your space and never leave!  

Psalm 91 says” He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”   1 John 4:16 “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”                                                                                                

John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” Have we just discovered something here? The actual secret place of God’s dwelling in us is His Love!

Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Your Father is Love! 

1 Corinthians 13:7  “Love covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”                                                                                         

Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”                                                              

Ephesians 5:22  “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”                                                                                

Mark 12:30-31 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.(As He loved you.) This is the first commandment. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  (Jesus loved himself, keeping the commandment)                                   

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (He died before we made our choice)                                                                                                                           

Polar opposite on the spectrum starting at Matthew 24:12( “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”)  is John 3:16 and John 15:13 ready, let’s read…John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.               

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (so they should not perish)  but have eternal Life.” 

There you have it, a person being motivated by love, completely selfless, to risk his or her life for the purpose of saving someone else so they could complete their life on earth and gain eternal life! John 15:13 states clearly that greater love has no one than this! That makes this type of love the greatest! 

                                                    Greatest  

Honestly, we should all be growing towards the greatest expression of God’s love! Are we in between? Yes. So if someone asks, are you on the spectrum of God’s Love? You can say yes. And that is the truth. No condemnation! You’re in Christ Jesus. If you died tomorrow you’d go be with God in heaven! But we still have some growing and loving to do before then. 

There were so many ways Jesus demonstrated love to people, and we are capable of the same if we are open to God. Pray for those who persecute you. We may have to switch the narrative on the devil and start blaming it as the problem it always was and not the people. People sometimes follow devils and that is why we need to pray for them! 

Love is the main message of the New Testament. Are we up to the challenge? We are exhorted to love all in whom we come into contact with.

Love is a spectrum in another way besides the least to greatest expression. Love is noted in the growth chart of our own lives in the areas of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Perhaps this array is more like an apple tree. There are many apples, all tasty, all pleasing to the eye yet all have unique attributes starting with Love. 

I must tell you about my grandmother, Edna, my mothers mother. Everyone loved her. She was someone who could bring a smile to your face without even saying anything. She wasn’t rich or had any reason to be lovely towards anyone else except she knew and believed in God. She, to the best of my knowledge, was a woman of faith, praying and asking God for favors for her expansive family and others. Once I found out she had prayed for the Oakland Athletics baseball team for 3 years running, she liked them I guess. The 3 years she prayed they won the World series! 1972,1973 and 1974. Never seemed to matter the cause, if she took it up she would pray through to the end. Her life was marked by many answered prayers. Impossible or not so, only God knew. Love was her hallmark though. Kindness was also a part of her lovely personality. Never a cross word did I hear. Her children, Barbara, Mary, Margie, Claire, David, Frank all saved and with Jesus. She had received the Holy Spirit in the 1970’s around the same time as my parents did. Me, I am on my way, living for God as I can, perhaps resting on her spiritual shoulders! I pray today that even if you didn’t have a grandmother or someone who prayed and represented God’s love to you that God would make you into that faith champion for someone else, and see others as Edna did, through the eyes of Love!