What's Love Got to Do With It?

December 13 2006 at 10:15 PM

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?--------Everything, if it truly is love…………………………………………

…………………………………………….. We have all heard and read about stories of abuse or meanness where the victim was still told, “I did it because I love you”.

This indeed, is a false example of love. For it doesn’t matter if someone can SAY that they love you, at least not according to what the Bible says that love is. The Bible doesn’t say that love is words. ……………

…………..Yes, love can be tough. Yes, love can mean we don’t always have our own way, as in the case of a child who’s mother tells him that he cannot have a cookie before dinner because he won’t eat his veggies if he eats the cookie. Love says to a child, “you must do your homework before you can play a video game” OR “you are not allowed to use drugs or alcohol in our home”……………………. Yes, yes, yes, love can be tough.

But love IS NOT abusive or spiteful, or vengeful. 1 Cor 13, tells us what love is. Look if you will at verses 4-8.

For Simplicity, I am going to use the NAS: 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.

So we see that love is not rude, it is patient. It is kind neither prideful nor jealous. Love doesn’t put self first. Others are first. It doesn’t get mad real quick. It doesn’t keep a list of all the wrongs done against one's self nor does it wait to get even. Love doesn’t want bad things to happen, but rather wants truth and what is right. Love protects those that it claims. It always trusts and believes in those to whom it is pledged, no matter what things may appear, it rather chooses to hope and believe in the best. Love can be told something bad and refuse to believe it because it always hopes and believes the best out of the person. Love endures…..it does not give up but keeps doing as much right as is possible towards the one to whom it is pledged. When love is tested, it will not fail. When history is examined, real love will come through the fiery trials unspotted by naughtiness. …………………

……The Bible says here in the previous verse that we can give everything that we own, including our own bodies, but if we don’t really have LOVE, we have NOTHING. Why is that part important?? Because many a parent has said, “I would give my life for my kids”. But if they do not have the love that these verses talk about, then they have nothing and I dare say that their kids have nothing as well. ……………………………

………We must do all that we can to give this kind of love to our children. If we don’t have this kind of love, the Scriptures are clear that we have “nothing”. Do you have this kind of love? Do you have it towards your own children? Your own spouse? You can’t fake this kind of love. This love comes from God.

To have this kind of love, we must be willing to die to ourselves and live to Him. Do you live for Him and for others? Or is your life based around yourself? Do you really have His love in your heart?

1 John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?