WHAT IS LOVE?
I have lived long enough now to understand the difference between the word ‘like’ and the word ‘love’.
It is easy to be deceived to think that someone loves you when they really love themselves.
For instance, I have seen people like you as long as they get the attention they demand from you but when you can’t answer that call or be there when they expect you to, they pack their bags and leave. This is not love!
I have seen people that lack identity feel an injection of temporary security the moment someone likes their post or the moment someone acknowledges them. My friends, This is not love!
I have seen people manipulate others through flattery only to see they were not people of integrity. They were the ones seeking and even craving the attention they received from you after they complemented you. This is not love!
I have seen people jump from one church to another as quickly as they didn’t get their own way. Relationships to some seem expendable. This to is not love!
I have seen the weakness in my own heart of giving true love to others. At times I wanted others to fulfill my vision without helping them fulfill theirs. This also was not love!
I have witnessed the frailty in leaders who controlled others, elevated themselves, refused correction, and blamed others. My friends, This is not love!
I have seen marriages end in tragic divorces because of a lack of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is not love!
I have witnessed sectarianism in churches that has been a breeding ground for pride and division. If you only love those who look like you, act like you, talk like you, worship like you, you don’t know love!
Jesus said,
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
You might have all the faith in the world, you might have the greatest gifts, you might even give to the poor but this to is not love!
The Apostle Paul said,
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, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
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.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
This type of love is supernatural. It is above and beyond reason.
You cannot give to others what you don't have. You must receive God's love in order to share it. This type of love can only come from God. He is the source of all love.
1 John 4:7-21
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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 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. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 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. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. 20 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.
This type of love is unconditional. He loves you because He loves you!
7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of [a]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:7-8
God’s love for you is unconditional. There is no reason for God to love you. He loves you because He loves you.
How many of you want to be perfected in God’s love? Amen! Amen!
1. Repent of anything that is not God’s love
2. Pour your heart out like water to God
3. Forgive all those who have offended you
4. Ask God to fill you with His love
