L
ove has come a long way.
Almost without fail, the first definition given of the term "love" is that of an emotion or feeling. Without a doubt, love certainly has the aspect of emotion and feelings associated with it.
However, the scriptures teach us that love is so much more than just feelings. Our feelings can change from one moment to the next, depending on what is going on around us.
We can be sad one moment and happy the next. We can feel good at the beginning of the day and feel ill or exhausted by the end of the day.
The Bible gives us the true definition of love when in John 3:16 it says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life."
This would lead us to believe that love is so much more than just feeling. It is an action word. It is the act of giving to meet the needs of others.
Too often, when love is merely a matter of feelings, it can boil down to what we can get out of someone to make us feel good. When in reality, God intended love to be not as much about ourselves as it is about others.
Love is not just having our needs met, but the meeting of other's needs.
Love is to give, not to get.
God set the example of this kind of giving love all throughout the Bible.
When God freed the Israelites from Egyptian bondage in the book of Exodus, this was God loving. When God supplied for the needs of the Israelites in the wilderness in the book of Numbers, this was God loving.
When God miraculously gave Israel military conquest against foes that were far more numerous and better prepared for battle, yes this was God loving His people. In giving His message to His people through the prophets of the Old Testament and through the Apostles and other writers of the New Testament, this was God loving all of us who would find the way to true life, joy, peace and fulfillment in the pages of His Word.
In calming the storms and cooling the fevers, in the tears shed by Jesus at the death of His friend Lazarus, this is God loving.
In giving Jesus, His Son, to die so that we might live, this is the ultimate example of God loving.
The Bible is replete with examples of God showing us true love. Jesus instructed that the greatest commandment of all is to, "love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind."
He then said the second greatest commandment of all is, "to love your neighbor as yourself."
What an awesome world, what a different world it could be if we would just follow the example of God and love as we ought.
No matter who you are or where you are in life or what you have done, God loves you with a perfect love.
-- Pastor Steve
Patterson
Temple Baptist Church, Poplar Bluff
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