How Important is Love???
If somebody were to ask you what love was, what would be your answer? Would you talk about loving your pet? Maybe you’d talking about falling in love or loving your husband or wife. But could you answer the question of what love really is? And more importantly, what is love to God? How does He view love? Join us as we explore the question, how important is love?
Love in the New Testament comes from several different Greek words:
From Eros we have romantic love. The type of love that we experience when we ‘fall in love’.
The Greek word Philadelphia means brotherly love. It’s the type of love we feel for family and friends.
Still another form of love, Phileos is a love of admiration. The kind of love we feel when we place someone on a pedestal and look up to them.
The last form of love that the bible speaks of is Agape. This is a Godly love. A sacrificial love. A love that goes out of its way to meet the needs of others. The type of love that God feels for us and that is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. This is the love we need to strive for within our marriages and for the relationships outside of marriage.
While the other forms of love are fine, they were created by God after all, it is Agape that He is most interested in. For it is in this form of love that God’s grace is most manifest for all to see. And as we are His children, God looks for us to have a sacrificial love for all people, not just our families or friends.
Eph 5:1-2 says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Note the type of love Paul is speaking of here. Living a life of love, giving yourself up as an offering, a sacrifice to God. Notice too that this is fragrant to God, an offering that God willingly and joyfully accepts. Let’s look a little further in Ephesians.
Eph 5:25-30 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body.”
See how husbands are to emulate Jesus. Christ gave Himself up for us. He sacrificed Himself - a fragrant offering if you will. He did this to cleanse us, to wash us and present us without blemish, holy and blameless to the Father.
A husband is to do likewise in their marriages, loving and caring for his wife the same why Jesus does for the church. A wife cannot help but perceive the love from her husband when he acts in a Christ like manner towards her.
Now what about the responsibility of wives? Eph 5:22-24 says, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
Now I can hear people out there saying that’s subservience! No it’s not and I’m going to explain why. First, God is speaking through Paul on this point. This is God’s desire, God’s command. Secondly, submitting is to voluntarily place ones self under the authority of another. It doesn’t mean that a wife suddenly loses her intelligence. It doesn’t mean she loses her ability to communicate, to make decisions or to look out for her family. It means she chooses to place herself under her husband’s authority.
We see this balanced out by how the husband is to treat his wife, in a self-sacrificing way. Why do these things? Because we are members of His body, the Body of Christ! See how the church submits to Christ and not only that, but remember how Jesus submitted Himself to the Father, unto the cross. Likewise the wife submits to the husband. As Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, the husband is to sacrifice himself for his wife.
Now I can still hear people saying that this was only meant for that time, not ours. No, and again I’m going to explain why. Either the bible is the timeless Word of God, applying to all people of all ages with equal meaning and validity, the inerrant word of God or it is completely useless. Why? Because if it is not absolute truth, anyone can pick and choose whatever they want to obey while discarding what they don’t care for. We either submit to God and absolute truth as Jesus did or we don’t, simple as that.
So what does this all have to do with love? It is this kind of love that God is looking to instill within us. An active love. A love that creates gain, not only for ourselves, but for those that we share it with. Let’s see what happens when we function without love.
1 Cor 13:1-3 Paul states, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
What is Paul saying here? He is saying that he can literally move mountains, gain all knowledge and give everything he has to the poor, but if he does so without love, Agape love in his heart, he not only gains nothing, he IS nothing!
Witness 1 Cor 9:17, “If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.”
God doesn’t want us to simply discharge our obligations. When we act from a selfless interest rather than self interest, there is a reward. So we see that it is possible for us to actually give everything to the poor and be no better off than before. Our attitude and the position of our hearts counts more than the action.
So we see that we need love in all that we do be it marriage or performing the good works that God prepares for us to do. But just what is love? What does love do and not do?
1 Cor 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Love is patient and kind. How often have we been impatient and unkind waiting in a line to those around us? And I’m just as guilty as any of you. I have a terrible time waiting in lines.
Love does not envy. Ever been jealous of what or who someone else has? It is not proud. Ever strut like a peacock thinking you were better than others? It is not rude, self-seeking, easily angered and does not hold a grudge. Are you ever rude to anybody? Look to satisfy yourself at the expense of another? Fly off the handle on the road and want to force somebody over a cliff? How about forgiving someone, but placing a nice bright neon sign over the spot you buried the wrong done to you so you knew right where to dig it up again when you wanted it?
Again, I’m just as guilty. Done all these things and more. As imperfect mortal beings surrounded by sin, we can’t help but be affected by the world around us. The flesh is corrupt. Praise God He provides Grace to free us from the deadly trappings of this world!
Love doesn’t want anything to do with evil, it looks for truth and may I say, absolute truth. It protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres, always! It does not give up.
We see a list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Gal 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Notice that love is the first fruit. It exists with peace, joy, patience, fruitfulness, gentleness and self-control. You can’t express a Godly love for someone and not be patient with them. How do we know this? Because God loves us and He is certainly patient. If He wasn’t he would have destroyed Adam and Eve the moment they sinned, and He would have had every right to do so!
1 Cor 13:8 says, “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.”
Lastly, love is eternal. Notice it never fails. Other things pass away and cease, but not love. After all things that will pass away do, Paul mentions the three things that remain: faith, hope and love and then he singles out love.
1 Cor 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
This is why love is so important to God. It is the greatest of gifts. Not to be squandered. Not to be withheld. Not to be doled out sparingly. It is to be lavished upon people. Used generously. Spread far and wide to the benefit of others!
When we learn to love as God loves, as He wants us to love, we gain rewards and blessings that we can’t even begin to imagine. When we open ourselves up to God, when we surrender control to Him and allow Him to begin transforming us into a Christ like character, He begins to instill in us Agape love. It does not come from our efforts, it is all God the Father, through Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit effecting the transformation.
As this change continues, we learn to express Godly love naturally. Wives learn to submit to their husbands without rebellion. Husbands learn to love their wives. A husband begins to sacrifice himself for her good and the common good of the marriage and family. And we all learn to express this love beyond the walls of the nuclear family to the outside world.
Imagine the changes that would take place if Agape love was expressed in place of an eye for an eye justice. To love one’s self in a Godly way would mean to stop abusing our bodies. Imagine the broken bodies that would be repaired. The good health we would enjoy. To love one another as we love ourselves. Imagine coming together to help each other to a better life rather than responding in terror at the least little thought of giving something to someone that has less.
Yet, isn’t that what God did for us, after all? Did he not look at our extreme poverty and say, “I will give them the most precious thing I have, my Son.” This is what love brings forth. It is joyful. It is peaceful. It is patience, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.
Isn’t this worth gaining Agape love and sharing it with others? If God could give us His most precious love, His Son Jesus Christ, can we not do the same???
Praise Jesus we have the chance to try and do…
In His name…
© 2006 Church of Hope, Inc.
If somebody were to ask you what love was, what would be your answer? Would you talk about loving your pet? Maybe you’d talking about falling in love or loving your husband or wife. But could you answer the question of what love really is? And more importantly, what is love to God? How does He view love? Join us as we explore the question, how important is love?
Love in the New Testament comes from several different Greek words:
From Eros we have romantic love. The type of love that we experience when we ‘fall in love’.
The Greek word Philadelphia means brotherly love. It’s the type of love we feel for family and friends.
Still another form of love, Phileos is a love of admiration. The kind of love we feel when we place someone on a pedestal and look up to them.
The last form of love that the bible speaks of is Agape. This is a Godly love. A sacrificial love. A love that goes out of its way to meet the needs of others. The type of love that God feels for us and that is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. This is the love we need to strive for within our marriages and for the relationships outside of marriage.
While the other forms of love are fine, they were created by God after all, it is Agape that He is most interested in. For it is in this form of love that God’s grace is most manifest for all to see. And as we are His children, God looks for us to have a sacrificial love for all people, not just our families or friends.
Eph 5:1-2 says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Note the type of love Paul is speaking of here. Living a life of love, giving yourself up as an offering, a sacrifice to God. Notice too that this is fragrant to God, an offering that God willingly and joyfully accepts. Let’s look a little further in Ephesians.
Eph 5:25-30 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body.”
See how husbands are to emulate Jesus. Christ gave Himself up for us. He sacrificed Himself - a fragrant offering if you will. He did this to cleanse us, to wash us and present us without blemish, holy and blameless to the Father.
A husband is to do likewise in their marriages, loving and caring for his wife the same why Jesus does for the church. A wife cannot help but perceive the love from her husband when he acts in a Christ like manner towards her.
Now what about the responsibility of wives? Eph 5:22-24 says, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
Now I can hear people out there saying that’s subservience! No it’s not and I’m going to explain why. First, God is speaking through Paul on this point. This is God’s desire, God’s command. Secondly, submitting is to voluntarily place ones self under the authority of another. It doesn’t mean that a wife suddenly loses her intelligence. It doesn’t mean she loses her ability to communicate, to make decisions or to look out for her family. It means she chooses to place herself under her husband’s authority.
We see this balanced out by how the husband is to treat his wife, in a self-sacrificing way. Why do these things? Because we are members of His body, the Body of Christ! See how the church submits to Christ and not only that, but remember how Jesus submitted Himself to the Father, unto the cross. Likewise the wife submits to the husband. As Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, the husband is to sacrifice himself for his wife.
Now I can still hear people saying that this was only meant for that time, not ours. No, and again I’m going to explain why. Either the bible is the timeless Word of God, applying to all people of all ages with equal meaning and validity, the inerrant word of God or it is completely useless. Why? Because if it is not absolute truth, anyone can pick and choose whatever they want to obey while discarding what they don’t care for. We either submit to God and absolute truth as Jesus did or we don’t, simple as that.
So what does this all have to do with love? It is this kind of love that God is looking to instill within us. An active love. A love that creates gain, not only for ourselves, but for those that we share it with. Let’s see what happens when we function without love.
1 Cor 13:1-3 Paul states, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
What is Paul saying here? He is saying that he can literally move mountains, gain all knowledge and give everything he has to the poor, but if he does so without love, Agape love in his heart, he not only gains nothing, he IS nothing!
Witness 1 Cor 9:17, “If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.”
God doesn’t want us to simply discharge our obligations. When we act from a selfless interest rather than self interest, there is a reward. So we see that it is possible for us to actually give everything to the poor and be no better off than before. Our attitude and the position of our hearts counts more than the action.
So we see that we need love in all that we do be it marriage or performing the good works that God prepares for us to do. But just what is love? What does love do and not do?
1 Cor 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Love is patient and kind. How often have we been impatient and unkind waiting in a line to those around us? And I’m just as guilty as any of you. I have a terrible time waiting in lines.
Love does not envy. Ever been jealous of what or who someone else has? It is not proud. Ever strut like a peacock thinking you were better than others? It is not rude, self-seeking, easily angered and does not hold a grudge. Are you ever rude to anybody? Look to satisfy yourself at the expense of another? Fly off the handle on the road and want to force somebody over a cliff? How about forgiving someone, but placing a nice bright neon sign over the spot you buried the wrong done to you so you knew right where to dig it up again when you wanted it?
Again, I’m just as guilty. Done all these things and more. As imperfect mortal beings surrounded by sin, we can’t help but be affected by the world around us. The flesh is corrupt. Praise God He provides Grace to free us from the deadly trappings of this world!
Love doesn’t want anything to do with evil, it looks for truth and may I say, absolute truth. It protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres, always! It does not give up.
We see a list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Gal 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Notice that love is the first fruit. It exists with peace, joy, patience, fruitfulness, gentleness and self-control. You can’t express a Godly love for someone and not be patient with them. How do we know this? Because God loves us and He is certainly patient. If He wasn’t he would have destroyed Adam and Eve the moment they sinned, and He would have had every right to do so!
1 Cor 13:8 says, “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.”
Lastly, love is eternal. Notice it never fails. Other things pass away and cease, but not love. After all things that will pass away do, Paul mentions the three things that remain: faith, hope and love and then he singles out love.
1 Cor 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
This is why love is so important to God. It is the greatest of gifts. Not to be squandered. Not to be withheld. Not to be doled out sparingly. It is to be lavished upon people. Used generously. Spread far and wide to the benefit of others!
When we learn to love as God loves, as He wants us to love, we gain rewards and blessings that we can’t even begin to imagine. When we open ourselves up to God, when we surrender control to Him and allow Him to begin transforming us into a Christ like character, He begins to instill in us Agape love. It does not come from our efforts, it is all God the Father, through Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit effecting the transformation.
As this change continues, we learn to express Godly love naturally. Wives learn to submit to their husbands without rebellion. Husbands learn to love their wives. A husband begins to sacrifice himself for her good and the common good of the marriage and family. And we all learn to express this love beyond the walls of the nuclear family to the outside world.
Imagine the changes that would take place if Agape love was expressed in place of an eye for an eye justice. To love one’s self in a Godly way would mean to stop abusing our bodies. Imagine the broken bodies that would be repaired. The good health we would enjoy. To love one another as we love ourselves. Imagine coming together to help each other to a better life rather than responding in terror at the least little thought of giving something to someone that has less.
Yet, isn’t that what God did for us, after all? Did he not look at our extreme poverty and say, “I will give them the most precious thing I have, my Son.” This is what love brings forth. It is joyful. It is peaceful. It is patience, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.
Isn’t this worth gaining Agape love and sharing it with others? If God could give us His most precious love, His Son Jesus Christ, can we not do the same???
Praise Jesus we have the chance to try and do…
In His name…
© 2006 Church of Hope, Inc.