What is Love?
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Love Story
There’s a famous line from the book entitled Love Story by Erich Segel that says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
“It was written in the 70’s, so there’s a good chance ol’ Erich was on something.” (He sure as heck wasn't married lol)
Different Kinds of Love
Brotherly...sisterly...puppy...kitty...Tough Love
But is there such a thing as "perfect" love?
If so what does it look like?
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
PASS or FAIL
All men are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27).
Therefore, there is something of God in every man.
Those saying that they love God but, in their hearts, hate some human being, are (in John’s unyielding words) “liars.”
“Hard to Love”
Jesus encouraged us to love others as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:39).
How can we love ourselves when we know how flawed we really are?
“It’s hard to love someone or something when you’re spiritually dead.”
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
“We May Not Like Em…”
Sometimes we hate others because of things that they have done.
But we are not called to love the things they have done, only the person who has done those things.
That doesn't mean we don't get angry...
A person may be justified in being angry with someone under certain circumstances.
15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
Any anger a Christian may feel toward another person must be tempered with a love that is steadfast in seeking good for the person who has angered us.
It is God’s love for us, despite all our faults, that enables us to love others with all their faults.
"What are we afraid of?"
If we’re afraid, a lot of times, it’s because of something in our past that haunts us, or something in the present that disturbs us, or something in the future that stresses out.
Fear is always revolving in the mind the punishment deserved [ESTIUS].
“If heaven and hell are real then I already know which way I’m headed…I’m too far gone.”
For those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation, no punishment (Romans 8:1).
God is love
His nature is love.
How is God’s love manifested?
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
“Seeing is NOT Believing”
We have not seen God with our eyes.
But that isn’t necessary IF God is in our hearts.
29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Pain is Love?
When we pray and are told to wait, it is because He loves us and knows we need time to grow.
Jesus demonstrated this kind of love to Mary and Martha upon Lazarus’ death (John 11:6) says,
“When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where he was.”
Jesus knew that Mary and Martha needed to grieve in order to grow.
He allowed the sisters’ pain because He loved them.
Christ was showing them how they needed the pain in order to grow closer to Him…
“They needed to understand that God’s love runs deeper than we can fathom.”
God’s Love Runs DEEP and WIDE.
“SPREAD THE LOVE”
Because God loved us.
Just as Christ loved us, so must we love one another.
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
17 This is my command: Love each other.
God’s love is perfected NOT through our perception of it or our experience of it, but through our expression of it.
True love is more than a feeling; it is a consistent attitude of giving ourselves to God and to others.
The only Christ most people will ever see is the Christ they see in us.
4:16b The Old Testament Israelite would look with wonder at the tabernacle or temple because the presence of God was in that building.
“Well, brothers and sisters, GOD IS IN THIS BUILDING…OUR JOB IS TO REMEMBER TO TAKE HIM WITH US WHEN WE LEAVE.”