Increase and Abound

“And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12

Every follower of Jesus would agree that His commands include loving others. Based on His teachings, we would have to admit that it is the highest command. He tells us that the first command is loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and the second is “like it”, loving our neighbor as ourselves. He tells His disciples to obey His “new” command, “Love each other the same way I have loved you.” And, in the same conversation He tells them the world will recognize they are His followers by that very thing; their love for one another.

We don’t fail from a lack of teaching. We don’t even fail because we misunderstand what Jesus is saying; except, perhaps for a small minority who are determined to excuse their prejudices. We fail in practice. The same person who compassionately tends to the sick may, in the same context, may speak disparagingly of teens, immigrants, or another religious group. We often do not catch our own dichotomy between belief and practice.

The idea of increasing and abounding is what catches my thoughts in this verse. Perhaps it helps to think of our lives as a container. Its contents include the memories of experiences, the attention we have given to various media, and the intentional beliefs we have placed in it by study and practice.  If we also view our container with a limited capacity then we understand that new thoughts, actions and practices can help replace the old.

But, if we are unintentional about our lives, simply allowing the emotions of the day to create our present behavior, we become slaves to our surroundings instead of disciples of Jesus. We may truly be “saved”, but there is little change in our life because we are not “working together” with God.

Scientists have studied the brain of people who have learned to act compassionately in the majority of their lives. Among many things they discovered, one stands out to me. Those who are most compassionate are those who have spent time in purposefully quieting their lives, disconnecting their “inner self” from all the “outer activity”, and learned to be at peace simply as they are.

This provides a clue for the Christian who truly wants to “increase and abound” in love. If we will practice quietly detaching our “self” from the outside stimuli and be at peace with who we are as people loved by Christ, we slowly become free of our slavery to anxiety, anger and even prejudices we may have grown up with.

As I open a space within my life to be present with Jesus, simply He and I, without worrying about finances, without trying to change the world, without even bringing our “prayer list”, we discover an inner peace that we can access at all times. And, beyond the peace, at the root of everything we discover in this quiet space with Jesus, we will find the same compassion that motivated His life and attitude toward all who came to Him.

The true compassion of Jesus begins to increase in our life-container. The old actions and prejudices slowly are overcome by the compassion we develop in Jesus’ presence. The unending mercy that we received from Jesus abounds more and more, until our bucket simply splashes over with the same mercy toward others.

The longer we intentionally practice this sort of life, the more we will see our language change. Our judgmental talk is transformed into compassionate care. The things we have learned to be anxious about begin to have less and less effect. Other people’s negative behavior does not set us off so quickly as we center on the compassion we are learning within.

Whatever way we learn to practice this quiet space with Jesus, it is essential that we intentionally learn to love in His way. Wherever we are along the way, we can always increase and abound even more. As Paul prayed, so may we pray as well, “Father, help me increase and abound in love to others.”