Love.
It's a commonly used word. It is used for anything from a crush, mac'n'cheese, or your family. We try to understand it, define it, and talk about it alot. I certainly can't make heads or tails of it. The older I grow in my looong 19 years of life (ha! please note that this is sarcasm- which I am not very fulent in) the more and more it seems that I am starting to grasp the gist of what love is, should be, or what I want it to be, but then it evades me.
Webster's defines love as "a feeling of strong attachment induced by that which delights or commands admiration; preminent kindness or devotion to another." But, what happens when that fades away? What about those moments that we are so mad at someone or dislike them so much that we feel like we might actually hate them? What about when we love someone, but it subsides into indifference? Is it still love? But, the feeling is no longer there- how can it still be love? What happens when it's hard to find that delight that you used to have in someone? Is it gone? How do you make it come back?
I think that love has to be more than a feeling of delight or attachment. Because feelings change, our delights change. Could love be a choice rather than a feeling?
But, these are the years that we dreamed of- the years of youthful love- when we find that special someone! Girls sigh and watch their Jane Austen movies and chick flicks with glazed eyes. Someday my prince will come. A commonly used statement among girls that rings with a subtle hollowness of desperate desire. And the frequently asked questions among those of us who wait is- WHEN? HOW LONG? Who is to answer these questions that so longingly well up inside of us?
Well, God is. The Bible says in 1 John 4:7-12, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 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 siins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us."
Love is a choice. It can't just be a feeling. Matthew 5:43-48 says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." If love comes from God, it is possible to love those who we find it hard to love. And, it is possible to love them not because they can do something for us but because God loved us and calls us to love us so that we can bring them to Christ.
But, what about liking people or falling in love? Well, lately I have been thinking alot about that. It scares me to think that people can like someone and then completely change their minds with no regrets and suddenly, be "in love" with someone else. Well, it feels good at the time, but what happens later when the passion fades? What about marriage? When you love someone so much that you marry them- what happens two years later when you aren't in the lovey dovey honeymoon stage anymore? What happens when you have that first fight? What happens when they annoy you and you can't overlook those faults anymore? Well, then love is either fickle and finite or it has to be something so much more than a fleeting blow torch of passion. When that passion burns out, you have to decide to love them still. True love's source is Jesus Christ. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another." John 15:11-17. He humbled Himself, became like us, and He died, taking God's wrath upon Himself while we were still His enemies. That's true love. If we think it's hard to love our enemies, imagine how hard it was for God to love His creation who was in rebellion against Him and hated Him! Yet, He loved us anyway even though He despises sin and everything that we are at our core- He loved us and died for us anyway. Now, that is love!
I'm going to be honest. This past year, I had some moments when my emotions were in a frenzy sometimes, and I begged God to take them away, isolating myself, saying, "What is wrong with you, you hypocrite? WAIT ON GOD!!! EXPELL THIS TEMPTATION AND SIN!" What I failed to realize is that my attraction, yes, was based on lust, however, this temptation is not uncommon to man. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
God designed us we a sex-drive. Sex is not a bad thing. However, thinking about these things out of context and viewing each other as someone to gratify our selfish needs is when the temptation becomes a sin. We need to recognize our sin- our perversion of what God has created to be good, and repent. 1 John 1:8-10 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." God has given us an escape! But, He is not a judge who merely observes our sin and Savior who saves us but also a Father who empathizes with us. He understands our pain. The Bible also says in Hebrews 4:14-16, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may recieve mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Christ was fully human and fully God in the flesh on earth. He had the limitations, temptations, and weaknesses that we have felt and possess. But, He is our Creator who was without sin and was, well, God! He was and is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-seeing! But, imagine having this power and then being limited to a body that was a flawed copy of what you once were. But, Philippians 3:6-8 says, "[Jesus] who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of me. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Girls, guys, we have our Creator who loves us and empathizes with us who has saved us from ourselves, our sin, and the god of this fleshy world! Praise be to God! Jesus saves!
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:1-4. It is so important that we recognize that the only we can truly love anyone is by the power of Christ's love that is perfected by the Holy Spirit in us. Christ loved and served those around Him above Himself with joy! We are called to do the same.
But, what does this love look like?
"Love is patient and kind;
love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends."
1 Cor. 13:4-8a.
Love truly is the most powerful thing in the whole world. "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Cor. 13:13. We are nothing without love. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. It I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Cor. 13:1-3. But, because of God's grace and love, we are saved! "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed." 1 Cor. 15:10-11. Because Jesus Christ is alive and exalted at the right hand of the throne of God, we, who are in Christ, are promised the same thing! "For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But, we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." 2 Cor. 4:5-7.
Our deepest desire is to be in love with our Creator, and to worship Him. Everything else is a blessing and gift from our Creator, but only reflects the awesomeness of Him! "Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!" Psalm 37:3-7. When we delight ourselves in God, we find true love, joy, and peace because He is the source of those things!
Galations 5:22-26 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." So, since we have the Spirit of God in us, we are able to act like Christ because we are in Christ. We can lay down our fleshy lives, and be reborn to love God and love each other before ourselves- serving the body of Christ and sharing the good news of who God is and what He has done for His glorification! That is our song and our call to worship! May we be obedient to the task God has.
"What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made mysefl a servant to all, that I might win more of them...I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one recieves the prize? Do run that you may obtain it...So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But, I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 1 Cor. 9:18,19, 23, 24, 26, 27. May we always read the word so that we will be well disciplined. It is more valuble and important for food for it is the foundation of our very beliefs- it is God's word to us. It is truth. It is God's love story.
