What Is Love?
"Dear friends, let us love on another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." -- 1 John 4:7
We think of love as some type of romantic love. The love between spouses or boyfriend and girlfriend. Maybe we think of love between family members, the way a parent loves a child or a sister loves a sister. We might even think of love between friends.
But what is love? Is it what we get or what we give? Is it both? Is giving dependent on getting or vice versa? Is it possible to love someone who doesn't love you or is that merely infatuation?
"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." -- 1 John 4:8
How do you know when true love is present? Do words determine love? Does action follow love or proceed it? Can you love without words? Can words replace action? It gets pretty complicated rather quickly. Humans aren't known for simple.
"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
-- 1 John 4:9-10
-- 1 John 4:9-10
We can never earn God's love. He loves us because we are His. We can never deserve God's love. We stumble too many times along life's path. We can never perfectly love God the way He loves us. We are too selfish and focused on our own needs above the needs of others.
"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." -- 1 John 4:11
What is love? Reaching out to those who might not deserve our kindness and compassion. It is placing the needs of others above our own. It is helping those who reject us and our Lord. It is working tirelessly to bring good news to the less fortunate.
"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
-- 1 John 4:12
-- 1 John 4:12
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