The Meaning of Love

We have taken the word (love) very lightly in our everyday lives.
Today our society throws the word love around like an old dirty rag that has no usefulness. Love is now what we feel; love is what we practice and exercise in our daily lives. When we feel love within us, we feel the by-product of love because unless we work at it and exercise it, that feeling of love eventually grows cold.

How many girlfriends and boyfriends have you had in your life that you say, "This one is a keeper. I am so in love with them we will last forever, but as you two hit some very rough roads that you say, well, I guess they are not the ones for me, so you bailout of that relationship. But most of the time, we bail out because we chose to bail out. It is easier to bail than work and exercise that love we once had. We see this every day in relationships, marriages, families, and friendships.

I will attempt to bring out the love God intends for us to have and exercise every day and show you how the world loves and how God loves.

We use that word so many times without meaning. We will say to our mother or father; I love you, mom or I love you, dad, usually when we are ready to leave or disconnect in one form or another.

We tell our children and grandchildren that we love them as though we must do this because it gives them a good feeling that someone does love them, or we do it out of habit.

Have you ever stopped and thought about what that four-letter word means? The world's love is a failing love. We see it every day. We see it in failed marriages, failing family life, failing friendships. It is all around us; this world can only offer a love that will fail you, betray you, and hurt you.
1 Corinthians 13 CJB
1. I may speak in the tongues of men, even angels;
but if I lack love, I have become merely
blaring brass or a cymbal clanging.
2. I may have the gift of prophecy,
I may fathom all mysteries, know all things,
have all faith — enough to move mountains;
but if I lack love, I am nothing.
3. I may give away everything that I own,
I may even hand over my body to be burned;
but if I lack love, I gain nothing.
4. Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful,
5. not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered,
and it keeps no record of wrongs.
6. Love does not gloat over other people's sins
but takes its delight in the truth.
7. Love always bears up, always trusts,
always hopes, always endures.
8. Love never ends; but prophecies will pass,
tongues will cease, knowledge will pass.
9. For our knowledge is partial, and our prophecy partial;
10. but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass.
11. When I was a child, I spoke like a child,
thought like a child, argued like a child;
now that I have become a man,
I have finished with childish ways.
12. For now we see obscurely in a mirror,
but then it will be face to face.
Now I know partly; then I will know fully,
just as God has fully known me.
13. But for now, three things last —
trust, hope, love;
and the greatest of these is love.

Verses 1 through 13 give the meaning of love.
Love is a word that we hear pretty often. The bible mentions love often. The amount of times the word love is mentioned in the Bible depends on the translation of the Bible.
For example, in the Old King James Version (KJV), love is mentioned 310 times.
In the New American Standard Version (NASV), the word love is mentioned 348 times.
In the New International Version (NIV), the word love is mentioned 551 times.
In the New Revised Standard Version (NASV), the word love is mentioned 538 times.
In the New Living Translation (NLT), love is mentioned 898 times.
The word charity - (Love)- appears 28 times in the New Testament in the King James Version (KJV).

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing [1 Cor. 13:3].

This love is an act of the will. Love involves the heart (v. 1), the mind (v. 2), and the will (v. 3). Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Although we are to covet the best gifts earnestly, they are to be exercised in love—and only the Spirit of God can do that.

Look at it this way: Write down a string of zeros—eloquence alone is zero, prophecy alone is zero, knowledge alone is zero, faith alone is zero, sacrifice alone is zero, martyrdom alone is zero. Six zeros still add up to nothing. But you put the numeral 1 to the left of that string of zeros, and every zero amounts to something. And, friend, love is the thing that needs to be added to every gift of the Spirit. Without love, your gift is worthless.

Fulfilling the Law Through Love
Romans 13:8-14
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the commandments, “Don’t commit adultery,” “Don’t murder,” “Don’t steal,” “Don’t covet,” and any others are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah.
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Paul summed it all up in Roman 13:8-14. Why do friendships end? Because we lack true love. Why are we arguing and fighting all the time? And most of that is over meaningless and trivial things. It is because we lack true love. Why do marriages end? Why do brothers and sisters stop talking to each other? Why do parents disown their children? Because we lack true love. Why do nations rise against nations? Because we lack true love that only comes from God. The world lacks the true love that God intended for us to have and practice in our daily lives.

If you like to quarrel, you lack love. Fighting and bickering should never be in a Christians' heart and life. Jealousy is the reason for many fights in our lives and has started many wars.

If you stop talking to one another, you lack love. You may say, "I stop talking because all the other person wants to do is argue." No place in the Bible says to stop talking to each other. God uses our mouths to communicate his good news. If a person is trying to argue, then change the subject. Say, I love you too much to argue with you. Walk away until things cool down, but keep the lines of communication open.

Most of the time, a lack of communication between both parties could lead to an argument. God gave us the tools needed to have great relationships if we only use them, and yes, he gave us a mouth and a voice to communicate God's love for us, so use it.

One of God's greatest gifts to us is love. Because of God's love, He sent His Son to take on the form of a man to be sacrificed on the cross for our sins, and through that love, by repentance, we are spared from eternity in the lake of fire. Love is an action that we as Christians need to exercise in our lives.

Love is something we need to work at all the time, 24/7/365. No, it doesn't come easy. Why? Because Satan and his evil empire run this world. There is no love in Satan. He is incapable of loving anyone, and he manifests this in our world today. He does not want you to love anyone, and he will do everything to stop it. But I have good news. Satan is a defeated foe. He has no control over you that you do not permit him to have.
1 John 4:4 KJV 4. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

So open that line of communications and destroy Satan's plan to keep us separated. Forgive one another and love one another as God has commanded us to do.
God Is Love
1John 4:7-12
7 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. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 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.

Wow, John, comes right to the point.

God did not give us a different kind of love or one that is separate from what he has for us. On the contrary, he gave us the same love that he loves all of mankind. Jesus expects us to love one another in the same way he loved us.
Jesus was a servant here on earth. He met the need of others. He healed the sick, raised the dead, opened blind eyes, made the deaf to hear, fed the hungry, and calmed the storms. He did all this because of his love for us.

He did not stop there; look at what he did when Peter cut off the Sanhedrin's ear. Jesus showed mercy and love toward that man and healed his ear even though he was there to take Jesus to be crucified.

While Jesus was nailed on the cross, he still served the people. You may say, how did he do that? When the thieves were hanging on the cross, one on each side of him. Found in Luke 23:39-43.

One thief mocked Jesus and said, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other Theif defended Jesus and rebuked the other thief, then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” and Jesus told the thief who defended Him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus forgives the thief, but he also forgave all those involved who put him on the cross and those who drove the nails into his hands. Even those who mocked Him. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

This kind of Love God expects us to use in our daily lives. This kind of Love God has given to those who serve Him, and He expects us to cultivate that love. Keep that love watered and fed. Exercise that love and help it grow strong.

You must use that Love God has given you toward others as you do toward yourself. Every one of us loves ourselves in one form or another. We feed our bodies, clothe our bodies, exercise our bodies, and Shelter our bodies.

When we get sick, do we not seek medical attention? We forgive ourselves for things we have done and are ashamed of doing.

Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV) says:
"And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus gave us that commandment. Those are his words.

Love is one of the most powerful words in the world. If everyone in this world would use and exercise this Love, we would never see war.

Our prisons would be empty. No one would be hungry or homeless. The hospitals would never be filled. Why? Because this kind of love is from God Himself and not the world.

To Be Continued

By: Ron Alfredson
Email ltm@ltm4christ.com

Mailing Address:
LTM
PO Box 87083
Vancouver, WA 98687

The Meaning of Love

The Meaning of Love

The Meaning of Love

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