What is love?
There are different kinds of love.
There is the love that you have for a family member, a friend, a husband or wife.
There is sexual love. I don't think it needs any explaining.
Then there is the love that the Bible mainly talks about. It is called "agape" in the Greek text. This kind of love is not a love of feeling it is a love of choice. If we read 1st Corinthian 13 it talks about this love and explains its attributes.
1CO 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
First thing this scripture tells us is that without love we are nothing, no matter how much we can do or what we sacrifice. These kind of people are usually pretty easy to recognize. It is like picking out a want to be biker or Motocrosser. So how do we know if a person has this love?
Lets see what the Bible says:
1CO 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
You need to read these attributes slowly and meditate on them to really understand their full meaning. One thing you will notice, is that these are attributes of choice not feeling. In other words you can even love someone you do not like. What do you think, do you think you would want to be around a person that displays this kind of love?
1CO 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Love never fails? What an awesome promise. Even so we may not understand everything right now, there will be a time that we will. We may be living in an imperfect world, but it will someday be perfect.
1CO 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
This tells us is that out of everything only three things are lasting. Out of these three the greatest is love. I would say that makes love a very important ingredient to life.
Conclusion:
This is the love we can only truly display if we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This is the love that shows people that there is something different about someone that has received Jesus as their Savior. It is not something that is all that common in this day and age. There are people that display some of this, but to be able to do this on an ongoing basis it takes Jesus.
This kind of Love will get people interested in Jesus. This is what makes people wonder why we are different and how we can be. Lets display this with the help of Jesus to the best of our abilities.
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