Love involves giving. In order to properly understand what love is we must understand what God has done for us out of love. We know from Scripture that God is love. God demonstrated His great love for all sinful human kind by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and He laid down His life by dying on a cruel rugged Cross for our sins. Jesus took the punishment that you and I so rightly deserve.
John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." That is exactly what Jesus did. He laid down His life for us out of His love for us. The Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the third day to show that His was indeed God in the flesh. Whoever puts their faith and trust in Christ and His finished work on the Cross on their behalf will be saved.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
God doesn't want anyone to be separated from Him for all eternity and perish in a literal hell. He wants all people to come to faith in Jesus Christ and be saved. The Lord has given each of us the freedom to chose whether we will accept His forgiveness of our sins by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior or reject Him and be eternally separated from Him for all eternity.
The Lord won't force us to love Him back. We must chose to love Him because He loved us first. We have all sinned against our Holy God and God made a way for us to be reconciled back to Himself through Jesus Christ.
When we talk about love we are often reminded of I Corinthians 13 which says,
"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.
True love is patient and kind. Love doesn't envy, doesn't boast, and it is not proud.
Love doesn't delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
Love protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.
The love that the Lord shows us never fails. We may fail the Lord and we may fail to show Him the proper love. We do this by not loving other people as we ought to. The Lord wants us to love Him and He wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves. The Lord showed us how to love and we are to love Him with all of our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls.
We can show love to others by telling them about the love that Jesus Christ has for them and that He demonstrated that great love by dying for our sins on the Cross. It is through our faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for us at Calvary that we are saved.
Let us love the Lord with all of our beings because He loves us so greatly. Let us also show the love of Christ to others by loving them and telling them the good news of the Gospel Message of Jesus Christ.
Lord,
Thank You for loving us so greatly.
Thank You for sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins.
Thank You Lord for raising Jesus from the dead on the third day.
We praise Your Holy Name O Lord.
Thank You that who ever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and have a place in Heaven.
Help us love You more and Help us to love others as You love us.
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen.
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