Let’s talk about LOVE. Are we, as
Christians, missing the bigger picture?? We know what we need to do to be saved…
· -Hear
the Word of God
· -Believe
in the His Word and know that it is the truth
· -Repent,
turn from our sins
· -Confess
the good confession (that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross
to take away our sins)
· -And
be baptized (in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the
remission of sins)
But over and over again we seem to
look past what the New Testament refers to time and time again!
LOVE.
Let’s consider the plan of salvation,
the five parts of worship, the do’s and don’ts of the Bible all as a bunch of
those Pandora* beads in their cases, and then let us look at LOVE as the sparkly,
strong clasp that we have to add to the ends. We need all those beads to make
our bracelets; one bead on the sucker would look pretty funny, would it not??
But to make our bracelet complete, to hold it all together and show the world
what it looks like and tell them about the meaning of each little bead, we need
that strong clasp at the back to connect it all.
That bracelet is like our
Christianity. We should wear it out where everyone can see it and tell them all
about the meaning and what they can do to get one of those beautiful things.
But if we don’t use that clasp, if we don’t use LOVE, as soon as we put it on,
it falls apart.
Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and great
commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’[b] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL
THE LAW AND PROPHETS.
LOVE!
Our Momma’s didn’t tell us this! Our
Dad’s didn’t, nor our neighbors, nor our teachers. Our sisters didn’t, our
brothers didn’t, our friends didn’t. Our elders, deacons, preachers didn’t….
Okay, so they may have repeated those verses to us before, but they didn’t
speak those words; JESUS DID!!
JESUS said to love God with all our
hearts, souls, and minds (that comes first because God is supposed to come
first in our lives). And then He goes on to say that the second of His
commandments is that we love our neighbors! We hang the old law and the
prophets and the way things were before Jesus was resurrected on this; it’s
in the past.
Now, we press onward in LOVE, with LOVE.
There’s a particular type of LOVE
that I thoroughly enjoy referencing. That’s right, you guessed it, Agape Love.
Agape Love:
origin-Greek - Agape is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the
highest of the four types of love in the Bible.
Agape love is the kind of love that
God has for us.
Romans 5:7-8
7 For scarcely for a righteous man
will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us
It is SELFLESS. It is SACRIFICIAL. It
is UNCONDITIONAL. Let that sink in, let it fill your heart. It means that, no
matter what and despite the fact that we fail and fall and don’t deserve it,
God will love us so that He has our best interests in mind, He gave His own Son
to live and die on this earth so that our sins could be taken away, and He
loves us endlessly and relentlessly pursues us even when we lose our way and
often forget that we should be pursuing Him. Can you comprehend the depth of
that LOVE???
Doesn’t it take your breath away??
The definition of Agape love that I
gave was found in an online dictionary (isn’t everything found online these
days?? It’s all accurate, you know…*heavy sarcasm*). But let me give you an
even better definition of LOVE. Let
me tell you about what the Bible says it is.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love
does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave
rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Let’s break it down. LOVE is:
· -Patient
(suffers long)
· -Kind
· -It
isn’t jealous (does not envy)
· -It
doesn’t brag or boast (does not parade itself)
· -It
isn’t cocky or arrogant (is not puffed up)
· -It
does not behave rudely
· -It
doesn’t insist on its own way (does not seek its own)
· -It
doesn’t get angry easy (it is not provoked)
· -It
has nothing to do with evil/hateful/sinful thoughts; it’s pure (thinks no evil)
· -It
isn’t happy about wickedness/sinfulness/immorality (does not rejoice in
iniquity)
· -It
rejoices with the truth
· -It
withstands trials and tests; you name it (it bears all things)
· -It
believes all things
· -It
hopes all things
· -It
endures
LOVE never fails.
Side-note: I
read a small story online one day (a link from a link from a link) that went
something along the lines of a Mother telling her daughter what to look for in
a boy/guy/man, particularly a man whom she would wish to marry. She told her
that if she could take his name and replace the word love with it and if
it fit the large majority of the passage, then he was the right type of guy;
provided he did his best to walk in the light of the Lord. So the daughter
thought about it. “Jimmy is patient, Jimmy is kind…wait, I saw Jimmy making fun
of someone the other day, so, I guess he isn’t very kind after all…”
I REALLY liked the way they used that
verse in their lives (even though they were fictional characters). What an
awesome way to discern the character of a person when looking for a potential
spouse!! (Big believer of intentional dating you guys; saves everyone time AND heartache). And we ourselves should strive to be able to place our own names in those verses.
But THAT, is the biblical definition of LOVE; how awesome is that??
But how often do we overlook LOVE
while going about our Christian lives? How often do we not apply one of the
most important principles of the Bible while we do as we were told, Mark 16:15 15 And He said to them,
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. ?
We don’t see the tree for the forest
sometimes.
He is LOVE. God is LOVE.
1 John 4:7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He
who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
You guys!! Our God IS LOVE. Our
Savior and redeemer is LOVE!!
There is a quote I’d like to end with
that says: “I was on my way to the Savior, and I ran into serving, and I got
into serving, and I never got to the Savior.”
(I don’t know the author, if you
happen to, please let me know!)
Let’s remember that faith without
works is dead (James 2:18-20), but let us also remember that if we don’t make
sure to cover and coat and drown everything and everyone in love, then we’re
nothing more than the Pharisees; what good are we doing for His Kingdom??
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not
love, it profits me nothing.
Without LOVE, without God's LOVE, we are nothing.
Get out there and give love.
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| Photo: Pinterest |
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