The book of 1 John 4: verses 7 to 8 says, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love."
The Christian life now is a life that naturally shows the love of God.
But sometimes giving that love can be difficult particularly when the circumstances are not favorable or when we feel the people around us are not deserving.
But let us examine what the Bible says today.
Living a life of love is literally what God has called us to do. Love shows the life of Christ in us.
In fact, 1 John 4:8, part of the verse we quoted before, says, "Whosoever does not love does not know God because God is love."
God himself is love. The very nature of the God we love and serve is love itself.
I believe that is why the subject of love is very important to the Christian faith.
Without love, we are nothing.
Without love, there is nothing.
The book of 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the full chapters in scripture that speaks about God's heart regarding this subject of love and just how important it is.
Let's look at a few verses in the chapter.
Verse one says, "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
The point scripture is trying to make here is that no matter what we have, if we do not have love, we are nothing.
There is nothing a believer can have, not in riches, not in spiritual gifts that can ever measure up to love.
But then why does it seem that this love that the Lord has spoken about can be sometimes difficult?
In fact, many would argue that it would be quite easy to just not love some people because life is easier that way.
And in many ways, it seems the charge to love one another is fizzling out in the Christian fold today.
And there seems to be a new order of the day, the order of minding your business.
Now, to love one another does not always mean to get into each other's business.
But when we go out of our way to ignore people or be malicious towards people we know we should love, that's another ball game altogether.
And sometimes loving people the way we are supposed to can sometimes mean getting into their business.
When the Lord told us about love, he also never mentioned that it would be easy.
Our Lord just told us to love one another.
In fact, if we go by the example of Jesus Christ when he laid down his life for us, if he was given the charge to only make that sacrifice if we were lovable people, he would not have made the sacrifice at all.
He would have just gone on his merry way because quite frankly most of the people Jesus Christ met when he came to the world at that time did not make humanity look good. They did not do us any favors.
If we were judged based on what Jesus Christ saw at that time, there would never have been salvation for any of us today.
But the love that Jesus Christ showed us was not based on what people did.
The book of 1 Corinthians 13 gives us more detail on the God's kind of love that Jesus Christ exhibited in his lifetime, the one expected of us believers.
From 1 Corinthians 13:4, the Bible tells us that love is patient. And kind, stating that it does not envy, boast, or act arrogantly. This verse emphasizes the qualities of love that are essential for healthy relationships.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Let us read aloud and meditate on this chapter and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to bless us with his divine love as we grow together in him .
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
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