February 14 is fast approaching! It is a day we have set aside for “love.” Hallmark has started a new idea in that is a love for us. The commercial shows a couple and the voice over talks about not love for one or the other but a love for us. Husbands are to love their wives Ephesians 5:25 and wives are to be taught to love their husbands Titus 2:4.
Love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 as: “ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all thing endureth all things.” Does this describe you?
Before we get too far in this article, we must understand that there are some things we are not to love! John by inspiration tells us, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” James goes so far as to say, “…know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:7). Friendship is a relationship that is not as close as a “love.” What is our relationship with the world?
We know that God loves us. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us” (Ephesians 2:4). “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1). “For God so loved the world, that he gave is only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “In this was the manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).
There is the love of Christ. “Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword: (Romans 8:35). “For I am persuaded, that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor principalities, not powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and have himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35).
There ought to be our love back to them for all that They have done for us. “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If we love God which command can we leave off? Can we leave off baptism? Can we leave off how we are to deal with one another? Can we leave off worship? Look at what Jesus said, If we love Him, then we will do what He said! Will you do it? He loved us a lot, we ought to love Him a lot too.
Love, Keith
