LOVE

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Psa 116:1 (LITV)  I love Jehovah because He hears my voice, my prayers. 

Psa 147:11 ESV but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Luk 10:27  And answering, he said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength," and with all your mind, and "your neighbor as yourself."

1Jn 4:10-11 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation relating to our sins.11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1Pe 1:22-23  Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart,  (23)  for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

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A BRIEF TESTIMONY

I was living my life, doing the best I can to survive and thrive in this world, then one day someone introduced me to the love of God. Until that moment I had been operating under a life model of my own choosing: building my life on the foundation of a good education and the pursuit of the American dream.

Things were not going well--or perhaps they were, so I thought, but God interrupted. In that eureka moment I saw that a new paradigm existed--something or Someone is calling. That interruption rescued me from a downward spiral. I had been religious all my life, burdened under a crushing model of self-effort. I was achieving, doing all the right things, but I couldn't shake the gnawing, visceral feeling that there must be more to life than working feverishly to accumulate achievements and possessions only to retire in ease and comfort, then die. That was the path I had chosen by default.

But there had to be more. I could see from a distance that this American dream just wasn’t enough. What comes after death? Will all this matter when I die? I wanted something more--meaning, purpose, to make a true difference, to live for higher things--but didn’t know how to find it. Oh, quiet despair! But when He interrupted, everything changed.

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Isa 60:1  Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 

It is unlikely that only a single interruption opened my eyes; this was but the final straw that broke the camel’s back of my blindness. Looking back, I can see that there were many other times when Light tried to shine in. Notwithstanding, whatever the reason and the timing, Light entered my life.

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1Jn 1:5  And this is the message which we have heard from Him, and we proclaim to you: God is light, and no darkness is in Him, none! 

When Light comes darkness flees and we are now able to "see" clearly. No more staggering about, trying not to bump into anything as we stumble along to some vague destination. God now illumines both our path and destination, not literally, but through His love which spawns faith and trust.

On that fateful August day in 1978, the first thing I felt when I encountered Him was love. I literally felt his love and compassion and, amid my torrent of tears, it no longer mattered what the future held. Somehow I knew my life had irrevocably changed. I was simply secure in His love and knew He would lead the way.

It wasn’t till much later that I learned I had been “born again” and that this experience, though different for each individual, was how this new journey must begin.

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Joh 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

And now that I felt His love for me I began to see that this was the start of a new relationship and that I could now love Him in return.

1Jn 4:19  We love because he first loved us.

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HIS CIRCUMSTANTIAL PRESENCE

Mar 12:30 And You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

This is our prime directive, the most basic commandment. Surely He would not ask this of us if He were not with us at all times and if it was not possible to give Him love.

But how? How do you love a Spirit?

It took time but I began to realize that God is ever-present and much closer to us than we think. He is present in every circumstance, so we always have an opportunity to experience Him. Every circumstance combines time, place, people and things and we can experience intimacy with Him by looking for and listening to Him at all times. I call this His circumstantial presence.

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Luk 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Once I saw this it became clear why He can ask us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength: He is always present. What had seemed like such an impossible task now becomes easy as I learn to see Him with me at every moment. Indeed, I can now love Him passionately and intimately, like Enoch who never saw death but instead was translated into glory. He must have walked in this way.

So, I can know and love this invisible God intimately. The secret is to see Him in all circumstances. What joy when I first saw this!

SILENT OR SHOUTING?

1Pet 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

Still we often struggle because our God, though ever-present, seems mysterious, or perhaps we just don’t know how to stay tuned to His voice. Either He is silent or shouting.

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Pro 1:20  Wisdom cries aloud outside; she gives her voice in the square; 21 she calls at the head of places of commotion; in the opening of the gates, in the city she utters her words: 22 Until when will you love to be simple, you simple ones? And will scorners desire scorn for themselves? And will fools hate knowledge? 23 Turn back at my warning; behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. 

He is shouting but so many things tug at us in this life -- our insecurities, the need for money and good health; temptations, difficult people, obligations -- that it is easyl to lose our way again and again and find ourselves feeling all alone. At those times when I doubt His presence all I need do is look up at the stars or any other part of creation. It evokes wonder and I exclaim, “There He is!” God’s creation is the first revelation of Himself:

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Rom 1:19-20  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

Or I can look a bit more closely for His movement within my circumstances to once again discover that He never left. Or I can imagine myself floating on water or air in a state of absolute trust. And my heart is settled once again.

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Act 17:27-28  that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.'

When He seems distant it is because I am insensitive, or distracted, or He is trying to teach me agape love, the kind He possesses, but which can only be learned through adversity. Would I still love Him at those times when He seems to be against me? Like Abraham, I needn’t stagger at such times but just decide to trust Him even more. We must see Him and love Him by faith.

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1Jn 4:16-19 And we have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one abiding in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 By this, love has been perfected with us, that we have confidence in the day of judgment, that as He is, we are also in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment; and the one fearing has not been perfected in love.

We are as secure, perfected and settled in the Father's love as Jesus was. Indeed, If we are afraid of God’s judgment or in fear of any kind we have not yet fully received His love.

19 We love Him because He first loved us.

I love this God who at once seems so mysterious yet is so ubiquitous. He is my first and primary love. And I love Him because He first loved me. That is the correct order--our love in response to His.

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HORIZONTAL LOVE

So, now that I have begun to grasp His love for me and begun to love Him in return (vertical love), this love begins to flow through me to others (horizontal love). That is how God intends it.

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1Jn 3:10  By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1Jn 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

IJn 4:11-12 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1Jn 4:20-21 If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one not loving his brother whom he has seen, how is he able to love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this commandment from Him, that the one who loves God also loves his brother. 

My mission is to first be a full recipient of God’s love and then to be His love ambassador to others. As I receive God’s love for myself I am now able to become a conduit of His love for others. God wants me to be outward-focused.

That is His ultimate purpose for my life and for all of mankind. God is LOVE. He models it at every moment by causing the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

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Col 3:12-15  Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Rom 13:8-10 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Eph 3:16-19  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love [1], 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

[1] Don’t miss this key point: Without first receiving His love for myself I would not have the capacity to love others; I am too selfish. And we tend to instinctively believe we are not deserving of His love--that is the posture of the flesh--so we must learn how to receive from Him.

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LOVE IS ETERNAL

1Co 13:13  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

When all is said and done, love will remain.

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THREE KINDS OF LOVE:

The bible describes three kinds of love illustrated by three Greek words.

 

The first is EROS. This is where we get the word EROTIC. There's nothing wrong with this in marriage; God designed it to be enjoyed. For our purpose, instead of thinking of EROS as just sexual love, we think of it as SELFISH OR IMMATURE LOVE. In other words: "I love you more when you make me feel good, and I love you less when you don't."

  

The second kind of love is PHILEO. This is where the word Philadelphia from.  It's a brotherly kind of love (that's why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly love). It's the kind of love good friends share. You hang out, sharing the laughs and sorrows of life together. It is not as selfish as EROS but neither is it the kind of love that would make one give one's life for another other. "I love you, but my love has a limit."

 

The third kind is described by the word AGAPE. This is the kind of love where one would give his life for another, and yes, even for an enemy. It's the kind of love that God offers to us continually, the kind of love that abides. Joh 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.

 

So, what do we learn from these three loves?

In any love relationship (horizontal or vertical) the honeymoon will end, and we will be challenged to move from EROS into PHILEO and from PHILEO into AGAPE. That is God's desire. But for us to learn to love God with AGAPE love, there will be times when He seems to have withdrawn from us, or even when he seems to be against us. Will we still love Him at those difficult times? That is part of the maturing process.  "Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy (Job 13:24)?

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PRE-FORGIVENESS:

What I love most in the love chapter is the idea of keeping no record of wrongs. But, even beyond this, we must remain in a state of PRE-FORGIVENESS toward others.

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ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

1Cor 13.

Read the entire chapter.

Joh 13:34-35

(34)  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (35)  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

Joh 15:9-10

(9)  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (10)  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

 

Joh 15:12-15

(12)  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (13)  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (14)  You are my friends if you do what I command you. (15)  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

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