What is love anyway??
Happy Valentine’s Day!
So, what is love anyway? We talk a lot about it, we fantasies about what it should be, but have we ever really thought about what love, real biblical love is, What does it feel like, what does it look like?
There is a price for true biblical love, it takes work, it takes commitment. There are no short cuts, or quick fixes, it is not magical, it is not a feeling, and it does not happen instantaneously.
True biblical love very few find, because they aren’t willing to put in the work and effort it requires. So today, the day of love, Valentine’s day, let’s take a peek at what real love looks like!
Love is used 745 times in the bible
458 Old Testament
287 New Testament
Before we talk about what love is, we have to ask the question?
So where does true love come from??
John 15:10 (ESV)
10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
· True love comes from God the father through his Son Jesus!
· So true love, real love is demonstrated for us in the relationship between Jesus and his father.
John 14:31 (ESV)
31but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
· The world doesn’t understand real love
· Sacrificial love, unconditional love
· It only knows surface love, conditional love
· God showed us real, sacrificial, unconditional love
Romans 5:8 (ESV)
8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
· We are taught from a young age that we only love people who love us
· God showed us the opposite we are to love no matter what!
So, to grasp all this we have to be in a relationship with the one that can show us true love
We can’t really love anyone until we truly love Jesus first
Matthew 22:37 (NIV)
37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
· We can’t give true love until we first receive it
1 John 4:19 (ESV)
19We love because he first loved us.
· And we can only receive it if we are in a relationship with Jesus
· As we grow in a relationship, we are able to freely love others
o And we learn that love true love is not a feeling
o It’s not something we can fall into or out of
o That we can throw away
· It’s a commitment to other, love is a choice
· God choose to love us and we have to choose to love others
Romans 12:10 (NIV)
10Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Love Is the Most Important Commandment
John 13:34–35 (NIV)
34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
· Repentance is key to salvation (we all know that)
o Understanding and growing out of our sin
o Being more Christ like, being sanctified and understanding and growing in God’s word is paramount
o All these things are very important to the believer
o Teaching the is a hell and its hot is needed today
· But without love we will never reach a dying world
· Without showing people the love of Christ, we will never reach them in their Sin
· The old phrase hate the Sin love the sinner was never meant for the believer
· It was meant for the believer, us, as we look at the lost and love them to repentance in Jesus!
· It’s not our Job to judge them, we can hold them to a standard they don’t believe in, it’s our job to show them Christ love so the seek repentance!
So what does love look like??
Love Should always be our Trademark
"As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
· Jesus last command is our priority as we live in the world
· And as we interact with each other
· We must make love our trademark
· Our call sign
· Remember the words of Paul!
1 Corinthians 13:3 (NLT)
3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
· I don’t care how good you live
· How holy you live
· If you don’t love it really doesn’t matter!
Love Is Full Of Mercy
1 Corinthians 13:4–6 (NLT)
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
· Love is work
· Love is messy
· Love is mercy
· These words are proof that love is not an emotion or a feeling
· This is proof that true, honest, biblical love goes against everything the world tells us about love
I get the feeling that people think that I am soft on sin when I talk about “loving others” because they are thinking about the world’s definition of Love. but let’s look at the way Paul describes it!
· Love is patient and kind
o If he has to remind that love is kind and patient, he is intending you to be loving people at their worst
o It’s easy to love folks that are kind to you, and patient with you, unkind, and impatient are another story that take work and strength and a love that is biblical!
· Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.
o We aren’t supposed to love people like this
o We are supposed to walk away from people like this
· It does not demand its own way
o Worldly love does
o Worldly love is all about what you can do for me, that’s why we think if it as a feeling
o It we don’t “feel” the love, we don’t love back, that is the definition of demanding my way!
· It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
o As we read through this scripture loving someone is not being soft on sin
o It’s being committed to loving them right where they are at
o And choosing to stay in it to the end so that Jesus shines through and repentance happens!
Love is hard
1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.
· Love is hard
· Love takes commitment
· Love takes work
· It takes your time
· Your resources
· Its simple, but it is not easy
· Love bears the weight of others, when they don’t love them selves
· It believes in people when they don’t believe in the selves
· Love always has hope, it always sees the light at the end of the tunnel
· And in keeps on grinding, it endures, it keeps fighting, it never gives up!!
· Why because love never ENDS, it’s one of the few thing we will take from this world in to Heaven!
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT)
13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
The only reason we can love like this is Love Unifies Us With The Father, Son, Holy Spirit
John 14:15–21 (NLT)
15“If you love me, obey my commandments.
16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
17He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
18No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.
19Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.
20When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
21Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Love is hard, its messy, but it’s the most amazing and freeing thing you will ever do! When you learn to love like Jesus loves us you will experience a little heaven on earth:
· Knowing that people will fail you, but Jesus never will!
· Frees you to
· Love deeper
· Harder
· More passionately than you have ever loved before
· And that allows you to find real Joy in relationships and it shows the world Jesus!
· So, go out there today and love folks
· And as always be Kind to people today!
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