“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of them all is love’ (1Corinthians 13:13 KJV).
Just as the scripture says in Proverb 4:7 that, “wisdom is the principal thing,” we can also say of the above scripture that love is a principal thing.
Love is important, and everyone responds to it. It is not a mere feeling. It’s a verb, an action. It connotes giving. God demonstrated this when He sent His beloved son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV)
The scripture above told us of certain love- God’s love for humankind. But it wasn’t just that love. With that love comes a gift. He gave his only begotten son because he loves us, so that we may be saved.
The value of real love cannot be substituted for any other virtue. In fact, the scripture stated,
“Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised” (Song 8:7 NASB)
Lesson on the True Love of God
Love is paramount and important for all people. God is love and wants every Christian to have a real love for other people. Unfortunately, some people abuse love, and they mistakenly conclude that some personal gains must always be obtained from when it is practiced.
However, love is not selfish. Whatever a person considers as true love must not be self-centered. God gave a commandment in Mark 12:30-31,
“And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. The second is like, namely this, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandments greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 KJV)
If you profess Christianity, or at least you honor the word of God, then you wouldn’t hurt your neighbor.
If we start acting according to the word of God and we build our lives around His commandment, then every form of backbiting, slandering, gossip, jealousy, hatred will be replaced with the fruits of the spirits, which are, joy, peace, patience, love, kindness, gentleness, fruitfulness, and self-control.
Having these fruits does not mean we won’t have differences, disagreement, or misunderstanding, but we will be able to deal with them in the most appropriate ways.
Love is not desperate and self-focus. It does not only consider things of its own. Love thinks about others and seeks their welfare.
Of course, love does not mean that a person should ignore himself and be completely sold out to others. While he cares for himself, he must also be relevant to others. Loving your neighbor does not mean dying to self or denying yourself as if you need to destroy yourself.
As a matter of fact, you need to love yourself before you can love your neighbor, because the scripture says,
“love your neighbor as yourself.” This means you must love yourself first before you can love your neighbor.
There is a measurement in that scripture. The length to which you must love your neighbor is how much you love yourself.
You cannot give what you do not have. If you have no love in you, you can’t give it out to others. Jesus came to die for each and every one of us. He valued us enough to go through what he went through; therefore, we owe it to him value ourselves. To value what he values.
He loves us, and we need to love ourselves as well. But we must remember that when we love ourselves, we must not be self-centered about it.
In short, whoever claims to have true love must not be consumed in him or herself only.
Also, love does not equate to sexuality. Love is selfless, caring, impartial, and godly.
Therefore, everyone must evaluate whatever he or she regards as love.
If the result of the evaluation does not satisfy God’s criteria of righteousness, then it is not love!
The word of God remains alive stating:
“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:8-10 NKJV)
Ask God today to flourish your heart with genuine love – real love – that will benefit other people and me. Also, ask that the demonstrations of your love result in the glorification of his name.
Ask for that love that is selfless, impartial, truthful, and fruitful!
Prayer for Real Love of Christ
Dear God, please flourish my heart with genuine love – real love – that will benefit other people and me.
Also, let the demonstrations of my love result in the glorification of your name.
Let my love be selfless, impartial, truthful, and fruitful!
For in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
