Last week I looked through verses that used love as a noun. This week I focused on love as a verb. We can love so many things. People: God loves us, we are commanded to love each other, our neighbors, and our enemies. Things: God's sanctuary, money, Mount Zion. Concepts: good, commands, salvation, justice. Actions: quarreling, talking. God.
I know that in many languages including those in which the Bible was written, there are multiple words for love. I wish this were true of English.
Some kinds of love come easy but seem fleeting. I can go shopping and buy a pair of shoes I love. I can love playing a game with my kids or having a night to myself. I can love watching my daughter smile or my son hit a home run. I can love the song I heard on the radio.
Some kinds of love come naturally based on the circumstance. When my children are born I feel overwhelming love for them. After bonding with good friends I can feel that my love for them has increased. When I was dating, "being in love" felt fun and easy.
Some kinds of love are tougher. I love my children even when they disobey. I love my neighbors even when they speak badly about me. I love my husband even after we fight. I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength even when I can't feel his presence.
Not surprisingly, the first two kinds of love I mentioned can be talked about in passing in the Bible. It is this last kind of love that the Bible treats as a command. In fact, the biggest command - to love God and others. Not to love when things are good. Not to love when we first meet people. Just to love. Like all the time. It's hard.
But God doesn't leave it at that for us. He tells us and shows us all through the Bible how much he loves us. He loved us at creation when all was good. And he loves us each day when we give in to sinful desires. He love us. There are no ifs or ands or buts attached to that love. That is tough love.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
What love does
Love can be a noun. I looked through my Bible at a few of the many many passages about love and looked at the verb following the word love. Here are a few that I found.
1 Chronicles 16:41 God's faithful love in endures forever.
Psalm 23:6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.
Psalm 31:16 In your unfailing love, rescue me.
Psalm 32:10 Unfailing love surrounds those who trust in The Lord.
Psalm 119:76 Now let your unfailing love comfort me.
Song of Songs 4:10 Your love delights me.
Lamentations 3:10 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law.
1 Corinthians 8:1 But well knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.
Philippians 1:9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow.
1Peter 4:8 Love covers a multitude of sins.
1John 4:18 Perfect love expels all fear.
1 Chronicles 16:41 God's faithful love in endures forever.
Psalm 23:6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.
Psalm 31:16 In your unfailing love, rescue me.
Psalm 32:10 Unfailing love surrounds those who trust in The Lord.
Psalm 119:76 Now let your unfailing love comfort me.
Song of Songs 4:10 Your love delights me.
Lamentations 3:10 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
Romans 13:10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God's law.
1 Corinthians 8:1 But well knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.
Philippians 1:9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow.
1Peter 4:8 Love covers a multitude of sins.
1John 4:18 Perfect love expels all fear.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Love in 1 John
My initial plan was to focus on one atribute of the fruit of the spirit each month. However, I'm going to continue with LOVE through April. This is for two reasons. First, I don't think I really focused on it enough in my daily life in March. Second, we have learned that in many ways love is the key to everything. "The greatest is love." "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." Etc. Etc.
So for my study today I have been rereading 1 John, which is full of instructions to love and how to love. I challenge you to read the whole book (it is a pretty short one). John talks about how love is the key. He describes how love is not new. Cain's behavior, for example, back in Genesis should have been love, not jealousy and murder. And yet we can now know and understand love in a new way since Jesus has come. "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us." 1 John 3:16
The section of 1 John that I want to share with you is the second half of chapter 4. It begins like this:
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (vs 7-10)
Again we find that real love is not something we can produce on our own. It comes from God. In addition, I think that John is making a case that love is sacrificial. I can tell my husband that I love him and I can feel "in love" with him, but if I'm not doing things to make his life better, if I'm not laying down my wants so that I can pick up his, then I'm not actually loving him.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (vs 11-12)
How cool is that - God in us!
And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. (vs 13-16)
Did you catch that all we have to do to have God in us is to confess that Jesus is the Son of God? As Paul puts it, "we are saved by grace, through faith." So if I want more love be at work in my life, through me, touching the people around me, maybe I need to stop trying so hard to act out love and need to do more confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. Praise him, worship him, listen to him, remain in him, shout it from the rooftops - Jesus is the Son of God.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. (vs 16-17)
My Bible commentary says "We mature as our relationship with God grows, and God's love makes our love compete." The more we open up to God's love, the better our love becomes. And because we can see God's love at work through us, we can know that God is in us and that we don't have to fear judgement.
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. (vs 18-21)
So for my study today I have been rereading 1 John, which is full of instructions to love and how to love. I challenge you to read the whole book (it is a pretty short one). John talks about how love is the key. He describes how love is not new. Cain's behavior, for example, back in Genesis should have been love, not jealousy and murder. And yet we can now know and understand love in a new way since Jesus has come. "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us." 1 John 3:16
The section of 1 John that I want to share with you is the second half of chapter 4. It begins like this:
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (vs 7-10)
Again we find that real love is not something we can produce on our own. It comes from God. In addition, I think that John is making a case that love is sacrificial. I can tell my husband that I love him and I can feel "in love" with him, but if I'm not doing things to make his life better, if I'm not laying down my wants so that I can pick up his, then I'm not actually loving him.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (vs 11-12)
How cool is that - God in us!
And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. (vs 13-16)
Did you catch that all we have to do to have God in us is to confess that Jesus is the Son of God? As Paul puts it, "we are saved by grace, through faith." So if I want more love be at work in my life, through me, touching the people around me, maybe I need to stop trying so hard to act out love and need to do more confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. Praise him, worship him, listen to him, remain in him, shout it from the rooftops - Jesus is the Son of God.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. (vs 16-17)
My Bible commentary says "We mature as our relationship with God grows, and God's love makes our love compete." The more we open up to God's love, the better our love becomes. And because we can see God's love at work through us, we can know that God is in us and that we don't have to fear judgement.
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. (vs 18-21)
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