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What Is Love?


SoundCloud: What Is Love Podcast

What is love?
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. | 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
The answer to what love is, is found in 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4 through 7. These verses break down what love is and what it is not.
One of the main things that can be highlighted from these verses is that love in itself is something positive. It is something that is beneficial to ourselves and those around us once it is applied.
Love is an action. And the actions that are taken to describe love are actions that can be used in our everyday life situations and interactions with other human beings.
So why should we love?
1 Corinthians 13 verse 2 breaks it down this way:
If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. | 1 Corinthians 13:2
It making the point that we can do all of these amazing things in the world, and we can acquire a lot of knowledge, etc. But if we can’t just simply love our fellow neighbor, life itself would be pointless.
·         We were made to be relational
·         We were made to serve others
·         We were made love and serve God
How do we love?
The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” | Luke 10:27 NLT
There are three steps to take to successfully show love.
1.      Love God
2.      Love ourselves
3.      Love others
We have to love God 1st with ALL of our heart, soul, strength and mind. These are the four elements comprised within the design of a human.
The Heart
·         It’s important to love with ALL of your heart because your heart tells others a lot about who you are. For example: In Luke 6:45 it says A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.
·         From a practical standpoint, you would want to say kind things to other people because wouldn’t you want others to say kind things to you?
·         This verse is saying that a good person produces good things from the treasury of his heart and vice versa.
o   The treasury of your heart are the things that you have allowed to enter in or to be stored within it.
o   These things can either be good or bad things.
o   For example; if you’ve allowed negative words from other people into your heart every day, eventually you would start to believe those things because you have allowed those things to enter your heart.
o   The heart is very tender (metaphorically speaking).
o   Then eventually you will catch yourself saying negative things about yourself that are not true because of this
·         So in order to love others, we must guard our hearts from negative things: Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. | Proverbs 4:23
The Soul
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. | Psalm 139:3-14
·         The soul is your innermost being
·         It’s who you originally are were created to be
It’s dope because God already knew who we were before we were even born. So He knows those innermost parts of you that no one else will ever know. And because God knows you, He knows how to show you how to love. He knows you in, out and all around. Therefore we should trust in the one who knows who we are.
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” | Jeremiah 1:5
Strength
Strength is an interesting attribute. We have strength but it is not our own strength. It is the strength that comes from God Himself. It’s in having to rely on God’s strength that allows us to trust in His provision and power more when we are faced with whatever comes our way. This applies to love as well. We cannot love off of our own strength. We can only love others after we have experienced the love of Christ 1st by His grace through faith in Jesus’ finished work. That in essence is our fuel to have a desire to want to love others.
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. | Philippians 4:13
The Mind
Once we get that fuel to desire to love others, we have to keep our minds stayed on Jesus Christ.
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! | Isaiah 26:3
·         Doing things out of love isn’t always easy, especially when it comes to loving your enemies.
·         Isaiah 26:3 points out that God will give you that perfect peace if you just continue to keep your mind on Him. He will not only give you perfect peace, but He will keep you in that perfect peace.
·         Make your thought Godly thoughts. In order to acquire Godly thoughts you can:
o   Read the Bible; thus revealing His nature
o   Listen to worship, gospel, Christian music
o   Pray to Him; talk to Him throughout the day; tell Him how you’re feeling
o   Love others by serving through your actions
Conclusion
Once you love God with ALL, you will then be able to love others with your ALL and not partially. In fact loving partially is a transgression in itself (James 2:9). But thank God for Jesus who paid the ultimate price for our transgressions. Through Him we are able to complete this practice of love not on our own strength, but through His finished work of dying for all of our sins once and for all.

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