Saturday Motivation! Winners Love Everyone!
May 16th 2020
Saturday Motivation! Winners Love Everyone!
Praise song: Jesus is a mighty God, He is a mighty God, Corona bow before Him, He is a mighty God. Covid 19 bow before Him, He is a Mighty God!
Text:
John 3 v 16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 22 v 37: Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Deuteronomy 6 v 5: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Luke 10 v 27: He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
Introduction
What`s Love?
When I was young, I defined love as a feeling you feel when you feel you are feeling a funny feeling (tautological right?)
To me then, love was simply an emotion because I did not understand the concept according to scriptures. I was not a believer and I had never read the bible. But as I matured and gained divine truths through the knowledge of scriptures, I realized that love cannot be easily defined as there are so many definitions of the word.
Love is an emotion that cannot be seen or touched and is experienced by everyone differently. Love is a connection we share through feeling of joy and happiness with those we hold dear.
Love is more than romantic attraction or strong feelings towards the people we cherish.
According to Scriptures, love can be summed up as truth, respect and obedience that all believers hold for God.
Love is patient, Love is kind; love does not envy, it`s not rude, not easily provoked and thinks no evil. Love is pure, perfect, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never ends.
The key concepts of love according to the bible are; trusting God, being faithful and patient with Him and all of His creations.
There are seven different kinds of love;
- Eros; Sexual Love
- Philia; Friendship or Goodwill
- Storge; Family Love
- Agape; Universal love ( which is felt for strangers, nature and God)
- Ludus: Playful and uncommitted love
- Pragma; Practical love (founded on long term desires)
- Philautia; Self love
Biblical love is Agape love and that is our main focus.
For all believers, the bible is an excellent source of inspiration for how to love freely and passionately.
Knowing that there is someone to love us as we are at all times can help us gain confidence and we will be able to love ourselves and others unconditionally.
God loves us and implores us to have agape love for one another because agape love is pure and unconditional. It never ends.
We are encouraged to stand in love and not fall in love and to do this, we must first love and appreciate ourselves and know that God loves us just the way we are. We should therefore not be afraid to live independently. We should trust God and be assured of His everlasting love that once we keep His commandments and walk with Him, He will forever guide our paths even when we are lonely and feel like there is no one there for us to lean on, God will always be with us and we can always be rest assured that all will be well as He will never leave us nor forsake us.
Let`s look at some concepts and scriptures on love
- Love is Relational; 1 John v 4 v 7: Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God
- Love is our life purpose; 1 Corinthians 16 v 14: Let all that you do be done in love
- Love without actions is useless; 1 Corinthians 13 v 2: And Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could move mountains but have not love, I am nothing.
- Love forgives and forgets; 1 Peter 4 v 8: And above all things, have fervent love for one another for love will cover a multitude of sins.
- Love is the greatest; 1 Corinthians 13 v 13: And now abide faith, hope, love, these three but the greatest of this is love.
- Love Everyone; John 15 v 12; This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you
- Love is a virtue; Colossians 3 v 14; But above all these things, put on love which is the bond of perfection
- Love is patient and Kind; Ephesians 4 v 2: With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love.
- Love is a language; Romans 12 v 10: Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another.
- Love is a gift; John 3 v 16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life
- Love cannot be measured; Psalm 103 v 17: But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children`s children.
- Love is as strong as death; Song of Solomon 8 v 6a-c: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death.
- Love cannot be quenched; Song of Solomon 8 v 7a: Many waters cannot quench love nor can the floods drown it.
- Loving is Godly; 1 John 4 v 16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.
- Love is perfect; 1 John 4 v 18a: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
- God is love; 1 John 4 v 19: We love him because He first loved us.
- Love is walking according to God`s commandment; 2 John 1 v 6a: That is love that we walk according to His commandments.
- Love never ends: Romans 8 v 38: And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God`s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries for tomorrow –not even the powers of hell can separate us from God`s love.
Our Model of Love
Christ is our model of love according to scriptures. He was compassionate and responded to the needs and suffering of the people because he loved them deeply. He respected and valued all men and women. He was just and believed in equality. He respected the poor and listened to the little children. He responded patiently and encouraged everyone to love one another.
We learn from the biographies of Jesus in the books of (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that he accepted and loved everyone. He never discriminated. He encouraged us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
A life in Christ is a life that loves, serves and forgives others. A life that listens, encourages, loves and respects others. This is the heart of Jesus according to scriptures and should be ours as well.
Jesus love for all of mankind is the best example of perfect and pure love and this is obvious in the way he died for our sins on the cross.
Example of Imperfect love according to Scriptures
- The Pharisees in John 9 v 1 -34: The Pharisees did not know how to love neither did they understand love. They met Jesus in person and witnessed the numerous signs and wonders that he performed but were too blind spiritually to see it. They were too religious to see beyond their noses. All they cared about was the Law of Moses. They were judgmental and believed strongly that no one should do any work on the Sabbath day; including healing the sick and so they criticized Jesus each time he performed a miraculous healing. An example is in the book of (John 9 v 1-34; where he healed a blind man who had been blind from birth.) This made the Pharisees very angry and they alleged that Jesus was not from God because he did not keep the Sabbath. They refused to acknowledge that Jesus was the son of God.
- Samson and Delilah in Judges 16 v 1- 23: Samson, a Nazirite from the womb was supposed to deliver the Israelites out of the hand of the Philistines. He was a mighty man of valor, strong and mighty. With the jawbone of a donkey, he killed a thousand men. Due to sin and disobedience to the Lord, Samson fell short of God`s glory and died a painful death. Samson chose not to stand in love with God and follow his commands. He slept with an harlot and later fell in love with Delilah. Delilah however never loved him but colluded with the Philistines and sold him for eleven hundred pieces of silver. She continued to weary him day by day until he leaked the secret of his great strength to her. She later used this against him and the Philistines captured him. They gorged out his eyes and made him a grinder in the prison.
At the end, Samson killed a lot more at his death than he did before he fell in love. However, the fact still remains that he fell from grace to grass. He fell from a place of honor to a place of shame and ridicule.
Judas Iscariot in Mathew 26 and 27; Judas was a disciple of Jesus and treasurer of his ministry. He was also a thief because as the keeper of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put in it. He was greedy and continually lived in sin and later sold Jesus for thirty silver coins to the Sanhedrin. Judas later regretted his actions and returned the 30 coins he received as a result of the betrayal to the chief priests and elders. He could not live with the guilt of what he had done and so he went ahead to commit suicide by hanging himself.
What`s the lesson that we have learnt from the above examples?
The lesson we have learnt from the examples given above is to walk in obedience with the Lord. To stand in love with Him and do his will. When we do this, we will be able to stand in love with others and not fall in love. We will be able to discern good from evil and make the right choices. We will be able to reap the benefits of obedience to the Lord.
I therefore encourage us to have faith and walk in love with the Lord because when we do this we will be able to love others genuinely as the Lord commanded us in Matthew 22 v 37 above.
May God give each and every one of us the grace to walk in love and obedience with Him.
Shalom!