What is love?
What does the Bible say about love?
“He who does now not love does no longer comprehend God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8.
When we assume of love, it’s effortless to assume about top feelings. But actual love is now not based on feelings. It is about so a whole lot greater than how I sense about someone. Whether it is romantic love, a member of my family, a friend, a co-worker, so regularly love is given and obtained based totally on what I myself get out of it. But what do I do when it expenses me some thing to love someone? How does the Bible inform us to love?
“Love is long-suffering and kind. It does now not envy; does now not parade itself, is no longer puffed up; does no longer behave rudely, does no longer are looking for its own, is now not provoked, thinks no evil; does now not have fun in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love in no way fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
So, what is love then? When I can do all these matters in spite of my feelings, regardless of someone’s actions, that is love. I do now not sense loving when I am tempted to anger, to impatience, to are seeking for my own, to consider the worst, to provide up on someone. But when I deny these emotions and rejoice, am long-suffering, humble myself, undergo with someone, undergo all matters – that is actual love. Love lays down its life, these herbal reactions and needs that are a phase of human nature, and expects nothing in return.
“Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s existence for his friends.” John 15:13.
What does the Bible say about love? Loving first
“In this is love, now not that we cherished God, however that He cherished us and despatched His Son.” 1 John 4:10. It’s exquisite if any one loves me, and I love them in return. That’s easy. But that is no longer proof of love. God cherished us earlier than we cherished Him, and we virtually did nothing to deserve that love. What if any person has handled me badly? Where is my love then? Love gives, and no longer solely to these who are precise to us. It loves its enemies; it loves first. And it doesn’t disappear if that love is by no means reciprocated. It endures all things.
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless these who curse you, do excellent to these who hate you, and pray for these who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may additionally be sons of your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:44-45.
What does the Bible say about love? Godly love
“If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does no longer love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has now not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God should love his brother.” 1 John 4:20-21.
Our love for God is now not larger than our love for our fellow men. Godly love does no longer exchange in accordance to circumstances. It is rooted and grounded.
The tendency is to prefer the others to change. We experience that it is hard to love any individual as they are and would choose that they had been different. But this is now not what the Bible says about love! This is proof that we are extra worried with our very own happiness and remedy than with love for the others; we are in search of our own.
But what is love? The reality is that as a substitute of hoping for the others to change, we want to locate the sin in ourselves and cleanse that out. The self-interest, know-it-all attitude, conceit, stubbornness, etc., the sin that I locate when I deal with others in the direction of life. If we cleanse ourselves from these matters then we can bear, believe, hope, and suffer all matters from the others. We love them as they are, and we can pray for them out of a honest Godly love and subject for them.
No exceptions to love
And there are no exceptions. No “Well, this character doesn’t deserve it.” Jesus laid down His existence for us, the closing signal of how tons He cherished us. And no one has ever been much less deserving than we are of that. To love does now not suggest to agree with someone’s sin, to say that the entirety that they do is OK. Rather, it is to undergo with them, to pray for them, to have belief for them, to desire the very satisfactory for them. It is motion in spite of how I feel. Then I can come from having a herbal dislike for anybody to having a actual love for them. In order to assist anyone and flip them from matters that should be damaging to them, I can exhort, advise, or right them, however solely when I do it out of a authentic difficulty and care for them.
Every one I meet must feel a drawing to Christ via me. Love is what attracts people. Goodness, kindness, meekness of heart, patience, understanding. How can anybody sense drawn if their journey of me is impatience, haughtiness, rudeness, hate, etc.?
So if I sense that I am missing in actual Godly love, then I can pray to God that He can exhibit me how I obtain extra of it. I want to be inclined to provide up my very own self-will and assume of the others earlier than myself.
“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; however the biggest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13.
