The World Needs True Love

We could make a very long list of all of the things that are wrong with our world these days.  There is indeed a lot of anger, bickering, and finger pointing.  If I had to chose just one thing that is wrong with the world I would have to say that the main problem with the world is a extreme lack of true love.  The more I look at the world around me the more I am sure that people have forgotten how to love.

What the world passes off as love is not love at all.  The world's love is actually shallow and at times ungodly.  It also appears to be very self centered.  The world doesn't understand true love.  True love has to do with sacrifice and giving.  The world's shallow view of love focuses more on, "what is in it for me?"

I am a 42 year old single man.  I have never been married.  I have never even had a girlfriend, but I know what love is.   The only way to truly know what love is we must look to God.  For the Bible tells us that God is love.  God loves each one of us with an unconditional love.

John 3:16, says, "For God so loved that world that He gave His one and only Son, so that who so ever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."  God demonstrated His great love towards each one of us by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into this world.  Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life.  Jesus went obediently to the Cross where He shed His blood for our sins.  Jesus showed us how much He loves us by dying on the Cross in our place.  He took the punishment that you and I so rightly deserve.

God raised Jesus up from the dead on the third day and one day He will come back to the earth as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  Everyone who has repented of their sins and have placed their faith in Jesus Christ have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.

I like what the Apostle Paul says about love in I Corinthians 13 which says,

"1 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."

God showed us what true love looks like.  True love isn't self seeking.  True love involves something deeper and more meaningful.  We must love God first and foremost if we are truly to know what love is.  We can't really understand what love looks like until we understand the Cross of Christ and the sacrifice that He made on our behalf.  

True love is patient and it is kind.  There is a lot of impatience and unkindness in our world today.  Love doesn't dishonor others, it is not self seeking.  It is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love always protects.  Love always trusts.  Love always hopes and it always perseveres no matter what trials may come in life.  The world around us is blind to true love.  People's hearts have grown cold.  We believers in Jesus need to reflect His love to others and tell them how much God loves them so they can begin to understand God's love.

Let's love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, bodies, and souls and may we love others as God so greatly loves us.  The world needs to embrace the love of Jesus Christ.  In order to know what love is we need to we need to understand what Jesus has done for us and then enter into a relationship with Him by placing our faith in Him.

Lord,

Thank You for showing us what love is all about.

Help us to demonstrate true love to those around us.

Help us to share the love of Jesus Christ with all of those we meet.

I pray for other single believers, that they would continue to grow more in love with You and not be discouraged.

Lead us and guide us by the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus Name we pray,

Amen.