love3

Following are a few verses describing love and God’s commands about love:

1st John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

1st John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.

1st John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1st John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

1st John 3:23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

1st John 4:7-10 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. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1st John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

1st John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

1st John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

1st John 4:20-21 21 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1st John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

God’s definition of love simply says Love all people even if they do not love you! Love all people even if they are despicable! It’s easy for me to love some one that loves me back. At least most of the time it is easy! But for us to love someone that hurts us, this is a difficult task. To love someone that hates us, you've got to be kidding! NO! God was not and is not kidding!

We often take love so lightly! God created you and me out of love. He didn't do it so that we could make fun of love, or use love to get our way, and He sure didn't do it so we could sell our idea of love!

Love defined by God is God Himself! It is an act of giving unconditionally!

What are love's characteristics: For this we will turn to 1st Corinthians 13:4-7 4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. 5 It is not conceited; it is not rude and does not act unbecomingly. Love does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything.

And now let’s look more closely at each one of these:

·       Love is patient: It peacefully waits without concern of time. We are programmed in today's society to want everything fast. Fast food, drive-up banking, Broadband modems giving us lightning fast up and down loads of data. Everything in our life has become based on time. We struggle learning to have patience. Most of us are not interested in patience. We simply want instant gratification but that does not exist in love! Love is patient and involves peacefully waiting. When we trust in God He pours His love out upon us flooding us with it. And along with His love comes peace, the peace we need to patiently and peacefully wait.
·       Love is kind: It is gentle and gracious and brings about no harm. When life gives you pain don't take it out on the ones you love because this causes wounds that may not quickly heal. Just because things didn't go your way it does not give you right to yell and scream at your kids, your parents, your wife, or your husband. How would you feel if every time some one rejected Jesus He transferred that pain and hurt to you by yelling and screaming at you? Jesus does not do that and it is His example of love that we are to follow. God wants to see us transformed into the image of Christ and to do this we must give up our ways and take on His. And that means being kind, gentle, and gracious because love should not cause harm.
·       Love is not envious or jealous: It is not something that gets upset when another receives promotion or is blessed in some manner. One of the most difficult things for us to do is to put on a smiley, bubbly face when we get overlooked for the raise or the big promotion, etc. This is not love because love is not jealous or envious in any way. Jesus humbled Himself at all times and this is what we also need to do to receive and give love.
·       Love is not boastful or proud: It is not an emotion that allows us to brag about ourselves. A haughty proud characteristic is not a quality of God’s love. Anytime we become prideful and boastful we set our selves up for a fall. God does not want us all puffed up with self-righteous pride. Pride can also cause one to become stubborn. Have you ever seen the person that thinks they can do it all alone? This sounds like us once in a while doesn't it? How often have each one of us thought we don't need anyone else we can do it all! I'm the better choice! Wrong! God’s love does not follow along these lines of thought.
·       Love is not rude: A person that is obnoxious and rude does not have God’s love. Love does not slam the door, raise its voice to a loved one, walk away in anger, interrupt, or make another person feel sad or bad. Love does not hurt another’s feelings. Words hurt and the tone of your voice or look of your face can bring pain to another. Love is not self-seeking: True love, God’s love thinks of others. It is a love that gives and gives and gives. It is not a selfish type of love. God’s love is not self-centered. God does not want us thinking only about self. There will be times in your life when you are going through something and you won't be able to give the way you would like, but we have to be careful when in that place that we do not get stuck there. Often we just stay buried in depression and self-centeredness. God wants us to pull our self out of that place. God wants us to give even when we feel we cannot give because then we take the thought off self and on others and our problems slowly begin to diminish. We simply need to trust in Him for all things at all times.
·       Love is not easily angered: The love of God never goes into an outrage and is never moody or overly sensitive. We will all have tough days when we feel everyone is against us or out to get us but this does not give us excuse to yell and scream at friends and loved ones or anyone at all. Often times we yell and scream at some one then afterwards we apologize and make up all types of excuses for why we yelled and screamed. This is not right! Just because you lost your best friend or broke the lawn mower doesn't make it okay to yell at your neighbor! It makes you feel bad, it might have even angered you but it does not give you the right to step out of love! Even when others direct their anger towards us we need to love them back not come back at them in anger. God is our source of strength and power and He will help us through the darkest moments if we will stay focused on Him at all times.
·       Love is not a keeper of wrongdoings, does not delight in evil but instead rejoices in truth: God is love and God forgives and forgets and this is what we are to do also. When we truly forgive we will truly forget and love will flow from us. When we continually remind our self and others of what some one did to us or about something that happened to us we are not walking in love and we are harboring wrongdoings. We have not forgiven or forgotten and we cannot walk with God when we walk in un-forgiveness. So often we think it is okay to just do this or that because everyone else is doing it but it is not okay if it causes us to sin. Sin is sin no matter who does it and how often they do it. Love does not lie, does not walk in trickery or deceitfulness.
·       Love always protects us and is always trusting: Love never looks at how often I tell you I'm sorry, or how often I ask you to forgive me. Love does not keep record of the times I make mistakes. Peter asked Jesus in Matthew 18 how many times he should forgive his brother and Jesus answered him “seventy times seven.” God forgives and forgives and forgives and we must also do the same. And we must always be trusting of the best in people. Instead of looking for the worst in a person we should strive to find the best in them.
·       Love always hopes: Love always builds you up. Even when all seems lost love will lift you up instead of tear you down. Love has hope in even the darkest situations. Love does not fail. Jesus never failed and if we know Jesus and He dwells in us then we should not fail.
·       Love always perseveres and is never failing: Love does not give up even when it seems all is lost. Love sticks with you through thick and thin. Love never fails you. It doesn't mean that you win all the time but that you never give up.

God’s agape love is not an emotion that our human nature naturally grasps like it does pain, laughter, etc. God’s love is something He must translate us into through our study of His Word. As we rejoice and worship in Him we are drawn more into union with Him and His love is able to flow through us more and more.

Father, guide, lead, and strengthen us in Your love daily. Help us to dig deeper into Your Word so we can find the truth of love and experience the power of love in our lives in Jesus name, amen.

Where Jesus is Lord!
Living Vine Ministries
Pastor Thomas Miles

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