We love to love because He loves to love

Hebrews 1:9. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.” What an incredible compliment! Jesus loves righteousness and hates lawlessness. Such is the love we have in ourselves because we have Jesus living in us. Doing righteousness is the same as loving. Love is what righteousness looks like. We can also understand from what is said that love fulfills the law. If it didn’t, Jesus would hate it. The Holy Spirit contrasts righteousness with lawlessness. They are the antithesis of one another. If we abide in Christ, we abide in Him who loves to love and hates sin, for as the apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:4, “Sin is lawlessness.” God, the Father, now calls Himself, Jesus’ God. He, the Father, has anointed Jesus with the oil of gladness above His companions. The one who loves righteousness has companions who also love righteousness, but Jesus, is above them. He is the one leading the way, standing at the head of the class, so to speak. This reminds me of Isaiah 61:3. To grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. In this scripture we see a parallelism. Oil of gladness is the same as the mantle of praise. Jesus spoke Is. 61 of Himself in the synagogue in Nazareth. It begins, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to…,” and then there are several things God anointed Jesus to do. Those whom He gives the oil of gladness and the mantle of praise to are His companions spoken of in Heb. 1:9. His companions are the afflicted who have heard the good news, the brokenhearted who have been healed, the prisoners who have been set free, and mourners who have been comforted. That’s all who believe in Him! We are encouraged today by two pictures. One of Jesus, our head, sitting on His throne, pouring out His joy over us like a blanket is thrown over someone exposed to the cold elements. Two, we who have been delivered, healed, comforted, and saved are gathered with Him like a forest surrounding the King—oaks of righteousness in this world. We are oaks of righteousness because He loves righteousness, and we love what He loves. Does this describe you? Can you see yourself covered by His mantle of praise and standing in the forest of His righteousness in this world? What an encouraging scripture to live to love with Jesus. We love to love because He loves to love and we are with Him as His companions.