Love Is A Verb
Happy Memorial day!!! To all the military men and women who have or are serving our country, thank you so much for all you do! A lot of times we don't appreciate you enough!
Well, this may be last blog post for a while (so bear with me, it may be a bit on the longer side). I'm getting into the last three month stretch of college, and the intensity level of things is rapidly cranking up. Although I'm greatly looking forward to finishing school, I still want to "work at it with all [my] heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Col 3:23), and the one of the biggest ways I can see myself doing that right now is removing myself from a lot of my internet activities that have become a distraction. I'm also looking forward to writing a blog post on what God's taught me through my experience in the last four years once this is all over. :)
Ok, so on to today's topic - Love.
Yup. Big stuff.
And as I've said before, I really don't understand it. I guess I'm just so saturated with the way the world defines love, which is mostly based on feelings and appearances. But thankfully, we have the Word of God that tells us what true love is - the kind of love God has for us and what led him to send his only Son to earth as a helpless baby. Even though I don't completely understand this love, and may never understand it fully, I still know that it is true. From my study in the Word this morning, I noticed four key points that helped me have a better understanding of how love should play out in our lives. There are probably a lot more, and I'd encourage you to do your own study.
Most of us have heard at least one talk or read a study on love that focuses on the 1 Corinthians 13 "love passage". I won't be focusing on this passage today, but it's a great one to go back to. 1 Corinthians 13 looks at what love does (which I'll touch on later), but before looking at what love does, I believe we need to know where love comes from:
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love on another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." ~ 1 John 4:7-12
I couldn't have said it better myself. ;) So, step one - Love comes from God, so only those who have been born again by the power of Jesus' death and resurrection can truly love. Do you have relationship struggles with a non-believing friend, relative, or spouse? It's probably because, without God's power in their life, they can't love you the right way.
The next point is interesting...although we can't truly love people without God doing a powerful work in our lives, we can't truly love God without loving other people:
"We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. [Ouch!] For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." ~ 1 John 4:19-21
I think this verse just goes to show how important the subject of love is! And because God's love isn't like the world's love, I don't believe this passage is saying we have to have warm and fuzzies or even like every person we meet. This is where 1 Corinthians 13 comes in handy - it shows us what love is. It gives us a picture of how God loves, which is what we want to copy. I won't type out the whole passage here, but in a nut shell - true love is driven by action.
Love is a verb, and its actions are selfless, patient, not easily angered, etc. This is why our greatest example of true love is Jesus, who not only gave his life for his friends (John 15:13), but for his enemies. "To this [in context: suffering] you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps." (1 Peter 2:21) So when you're studying how to love other people, just look at what Jesus did!
The third point adds on the other two. God gives us love for others so that we can love Him so that the world will see the difference in our lives and religion by our love for other people:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." ~ John 13:34-35
And this leads into the fourth point. The world will notice our difference if we're truly acting in love, because most religions are based on fear or a hunger for power. But for Christians - we please God by obeying Him in love (not fear), which includes loving others. This may seem repetitive, but here's how I think about it - many Christians like to focus on "the relationship" and steer away from what they call "religion". Although it is right and good that we focus on our relationship with Christ, this distinction frustrates me at times because some Christians seem to use it as an excuse to ignore the "rules and works" that come with "religion". They call God their "friend", "father", or even their "boyfriend", but they are not living lives holy and set apart to God. From my (admittedly small) understanding, the whole point of Christianity is that our "religion", as determined by the Bible (not by Church leaders), is motivated by our love for the "relationship" - UNLIKE ALL OTHER RELIGIONS! So in my mind, the two are inseparable!
~~~~~
I want to close with a brief story that inspired me to write this post in the first place. In the past couple years, my relationship with my earthly Daddy has gotten a lot better, all praise and glory to God. Over the past couple weeks, my Dad's job has become a lot more time consuming due to a huge project he has to oversee, and he's had to be out of town a lot more than usual. Last week, he was gone Monday through Saturday afternoon. My Mom and the older two of my younger brothers were also out of town that weekend for a conference, so me and my older sister were in charge of the younger three.
I knew Daddy was coming home sometime on Saturday, but when I got up that morning, I wasn't sure exactly when. Saturday is our chore day, and I wanted us to get the chores knocked out as quickly as possible because I knew Dad would probably want to spend some fun time with us when he got home. I told my brothers it was kind of like an analogy of Jesus' return - we don't know when he's coming, but we want to be ready when he does! As I went about the house, I automatically began thinking about what Daddy would be pleased to see and smell when he returned. I thought about the things he liked, and tried my best to do those things.
It was only later I realized that what I was doing for Daddy was the same way my relationship with God should be like! I didn't do those things to earn my Dad's love or because I was afraid that he'd be mad at me if I didn't do them. I was spurred on to those actions because of my love for him, and a desire to please him!
I truly believe it's the same with God - as Christians, we should obey His commands, seek to live holy lives, and look for ways to please him, not because we're afraid of what he'll do if we don't or that we'll somehow lose His love or salvation, but BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM!
In Christ,
Ellie
Well, this may be last blog post for a while (so bear with me, it may be a bit on the longer side). I'm getting into the last three month stretch of college, and the intensity level of things is rapidly cranking up. Although I'm greatly looking forward to finishing school, I still want to "work at it with all [my] heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Col 3:23), and the one of the biggest ways I can see myself doing that right now is removing myself from a lot of my internet activities that have become a distraction. I'm also looking forward to writing a blog post on what God's taught me through my experience in the last four years once this is all over. :)
Ok, so on to today's topic - Love.
Yup. Big stuff.
And as I've said before, I really don't understand it. I guess I'm just so saturated with the way the world defines love, which is mostly based on feelings and appearances. But thankfully, we have the Word of God that tells us what true love is - the kind of love God has for us and what led him to send his only Son to earth as a helpless baby. Even though I don't completely understand this love, and may never understand it fully, I still know that it is true. From my study in the Word this morning, I noticed four key points that helped me have a better understanding of how love should play out in our lives. There are probably a lot more, and I'd encourage you to do your own study.
Most of us have heard at least one talk or read a study on love that focuses on the 1 Corinthians 13 "love passage". I won't be focusing on this passage today, but it's a great one to go back to. 1 Corinthians 13 looks at what love does (which I'll touch on later), but before looking at what love does, I believe we need to know where love comes from:
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love on another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." ~ 1 John 4:7-12I couldn't have said it better myself. ;) So, step one - Love comes from God, so only those who have been born again by the power of Jesus' death and resurrection can truly love. Do you have relationship struggles with a non-believing friend, relative, or spouse? It's probably because, without God's power in their life, they can't love you the right way.
The next point is interesting...although we can't truly love people without God doing a powerful work in our lives, we can't truly love God without loving other people:
"We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. [Ouch!] For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." ~ 1 John 4:19-21
I think this verse just goes to show how important the subject of love is! And because God's love isn't like the world's love, I don't believe this passage is saying we have to have warm and fuzzies or even like every person we meet. This is where 1 Corinthians 13 comes in handy - it shows us what love is. It gives us a picture of how God loves, which is what we want to copy. I won't type out the whole passage here, but in a nut shell - true love is driven by action.
Love is a verb, and its actions are selfless, patient, not easily angered, etc. This is why our greatest example of true love is Jesus, who not only gave his life for his friends (John 15:13), but for his enemies. "To this [in context: suffering] you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps." (1 Peter 2:21) So when you're studying how to love other people, just look at what Jesus did!
The third point adds on the other two. God gives us love for others so that we can love Him so that the world will see the difference in our lives and religion by our love for other people:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." ~ John 13:34-35
And this leads into the fourth point. The world will notice our difference if we're truly acting in love, because most religions are based on fear or a hunger for power. But for Christians - we please God by obeying Him in love (not fear), which includes loving others. This may seem repetitive, but here's how I think about it - many Christians like to focus on "the relationship" and steer away from what they call "religion". Although it is right and good that we focus on our relationship with Christ, this distinction frustrates me at times because some Christians seem to use it as an excuse to ignore the "rules and works" that come with "religion". They call God their "friend", "father", or even their "boyfriend", but they are not living lives holy and set apart to God. From my (admittedly small) understanding, the whole point of Christianity is that our "religion", as determined by the Bible (not by Church leaders), is motivated by our love for the "relationship" - UNLIKE ALL OTHER RELIGIONS! So in my mind, the two are inseparable!
~~~~~
I want to close with a brief story that inspired me to write this post in the first place. In the past couple years, my relationship with my earthly Daddy has gotten a lot better, all praise and glory to God. Over the past couple weeks, my Dad's job has become a lot more time consuming due to a huge project he has to oversee, and he's had to be out of town a lot more than usual. Last week, he was gone Monday through Saturday afternoon. My Mom and the older two of my younger brothers were also out of town that weekend for a conference, so me and my older sister were in charge of the younger three.
I knew Daddy was coming home sometime on Saturday, but when I got up that morning, I wasn't sure exactly when. Saturday is our chore day, and I wanted us to get the chores knocked out as quickly as possible because I knew Dad would probably want to spend some fun time with us when he got home. I told my brothers it was kind of like an analogy of Jesus' return - we don't know when he's coming, but we want to be ready when he does! As I went about the house, I automatically began thinking about what Daddy would be pleased to see and smell when he returned. I thought about the things he liked, and tried my best to do those things.It was only later I realized that what I was doing for Daddy was the same way my relationship with God should be like! I didn't do those things to earn my Dad's love or because I was afraid that he'd be mad at me if I didn't do them. I was spurred on to those actions because of my love for him, and a desire to please him!
I truly believe it's the same with God - as Christians, we should obey His commands, seek to live holy lives, and look for ways to please him, not because we're afraid of what he'll do if we don't or that we'll somehow lose His love or salvation, but BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM!
In Christ,
Ellie
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