Defining love, in Christian
gatherings around where I live, is something I prefer to stay away from. Love
often gets confusing for me in these settings because our description is often,
to me, an aberration. It does not tally with the love the bible describes and is
influenced by the emotions of the person defining it. Interestingly, the
world’s definition, which is unacceptable to us, is less complicated. We have
intellectualized love and mixed Bible and the world’s definition. This cannot
be right; love is spiritual. It is not acquired character but an expression of
The Personality inside us – The Almighty God.
1 John 4: 7 “Let us
continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child
of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God
is love.”
The love we describe is a
variation of the world’s love which can be switched on and off depending on
what one gives or wants or can get from you and cannot last the long haul. It has
everything to do with feelings, which is why it often begets fornication or
adultery, and nothing to do with what God would have us do. Though it may
qualify us for “nice” it is not what the world longs for. The world awaits the
manifestation of the sons of God. They are a people who carry and express God
even in relationships; especially relationships with believers. This is walking
“the most excellent way.”
1 Corinthians 13: 3
“if I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could
boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I have gained nothing.”
God is the epitome of love and
without Him in our lives; we are unable to express true love. He first
expresses His love toward us but He desires that we reciprocate that love and
in doing so we become living sacrifices allowing ourselves to be led by His
Spirit and instinctively expressing the God (love) in us. If you express God,
you express love and vice versa. It is only in loving God that we can ever
truly love others. It is impossible to love any one more than God loves them. To
love anyone is to let God express Himself through us in our relationships. This
love is deep and everlasting.
John 15: 12 – 13
“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”
1 John 4: 13 “And
God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.”
1 John 4: 16b “God
is love, and all who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them.”
It is sad when people work on
their loving by working on the outward or the expressions of love. That is
carnality and the end is death. The flesh is unable to control the Spirit; love
is spiritual. If therefore, our love is found wanting when placed against the
word of God which is the mirror for our lives, the way to fix it is to struggle
to yield more to God; it is to work at our submission to Him. Love is the
nature of believers but can only be expressed to the extent that we allow
ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God. I daresay that it is impossible to be
led by the Spirit of God and yet hate anybody particularly believers. The most
excellent way is the way of the Spirit of God. One reason we have a problem
with defining love is our strong desire to look good to man, which is the way
of the world. The Spiritual man desires God’s affirmation. Love is deeply
spiritual and we must not trivialize as we often do.
1 John 4: 20 “If
someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar;
for if we don’t love people we see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”
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