What is Love?
The question that we all ask ourselves at some point in our lives is, “what is love?” Is it, doing things for others, is it seeming to enjoy being with someone more than just as friends. Is it a sacrifice? Is it 50-50 I do something for you, you do something for me. Is it blind? There are a lot of views and opinions on what love could be and what it isn’t. I think that it’s an important question to be answered especially if we are called to love others. I figure the best way to find the answer to that is to ask love itself. 1 John 4:8 says that “God is love.” Now we have added to the question of “what is love”, “who is God?” if we learn more about God we learn more about how to love. The Bible says that God is our Father in Heaven, so is a father's love for their child the perfect love? For some that would make love very difficult and no father-child relationship is the same or perfect so we can’t fully trust our world's imperfect example. I think the best answer is to look at how God, who is Jesus, lived His life of love. Throughout the Bible, we find that Jesus went from town to town healing and caring for all He met. If it’s about healing others, how do we love? We don’t have the power God has. Perhaps we should look into the gospel. God sent His son to die on a cross for our sins. So does that mean we need to give our life for everyone we love? Let’s look deeper into context. Jesus died for us even though we ignore, mock, and forget Him. Think of a relationship. We say We’re busy and will "call" God later but, we forget unless we need something from Him or we choose to scroll through social media instead of going to God for advice or help when He asks that we go to Him. A lot of today’s views of friendships and relationships are that if I do something for you, you should do something for me, and if not, then you’re toxic and not a true friend. That 50-50 mentality gets in the way. I personally do not agree with this. I rarely do all the things I say I'll do for God. I get distracted and forget to put Him first. God has every reason to get rid of me, forget me, and think I’m not worth it. However, He has a 100% mentality. He is all in. That’s why He gave his life for me, for all of us. He still waits for me, cares for me, loves me. He leans into my problems and helps me through my every day. I think that’s love. That even if there isn’t a return favor, you still want to be there to help them. Love in return would be to not take advantage of someone living that out.
I want to tell you about one of my closest friends, Trenton. Trenton was an intern with my family's ministry. He was like a big brother to me. He was around me when I was at my worst. He encouraged me through it. When he left, I was furious. I immediately blocked him out. He had to force me to give him a hug goodbye and I barely talked to him for a year. This past week has reminded me of how during that time, he would still check-in, still pray, and still encourage me even though I was a jerk to him. Today, I know that even though we don’t talk as much, I could call him anytime if I needed a friend to talk to you, and I hope to be that kind of friend to him, and others. I guess the bottom line to all of this, is that we need to go MAD! Make. A. Difference. Let's not give up on people. We need to live out God’s love. Love should be given even to those who don’t deserve it. Talk is cheap. Instead of just saying we love someone, let's instead live out and show God's love to a broken and hurt world.
I want to tell you about one of my closest friends, Trenton. Trenton was an intern with my family's ministry. He was like a big brother to me. He was around me when I was at my worst. He encouraged me through it. When he left, I was furious. I immediately blocked him out. He had to force me to give him a hug goodbye and I barely talked to him for a year. This past week has reminded me of how during that time, he would still check-in, still pray, and still encourage me even though I was a jerk to him. Today, I know that even though we don’t talk as much, I could call him anytime if I needed a friend to talk to you, and I hope to be that kind of friend to him, and others. I guess the bottom line to all of this, is that we need to go MAD! Make. A. Difference. Let's not give up on people. We need to live out God’s love. Love should be given even to those who don’t deserve it. Talk is cheap. Instead of just saying we love someone, let's instead live out and show God's love to a broken and hurt world.
Verses:
1 John 4:7-19: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.
Philippians 2:1-8: Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
1 Corinthians 16:14: Let all that you do be done in love.
Galatians 6:2: Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
1 Peter 4:8: Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Corinthians 13: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 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 with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Songs:
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