The Truth about Love by Ineke Cornish
During the recent holidays I have enjoyed extra time with our grandchildren and on one occasion our 7 year old granddaughter expressed her worries that because I spent time with her cousins I must love her less! I was really surprised by her reasoning as we have always shared a very close relationship and I just took for granted she would know how much she was loved. I gently assured her that her fears were quite unfounded and that I love her equally to the other grandchildren.
It made me think about what the Bible teaches about love. The whole Bible is in fact a love story of how “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)
We may have heard these words quoted many times but often we don’t appreciate them or take them personally, sometimes we may even mistakenly think we are worthy recipients of God’s love by being a good person, helping others, giving philanthropically, or even by faithful Church attendance etc.
On the other hand we may feel totally unworthy of God’s love and feel sure He must love others more because of our unworthiness; the tendency then may be to work harder to earn His favour.
The problem is we can’t do anything to make God love us more – He has already demonstrated it most powerfully, as we read in Romans 5: 8 “ But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”.
Jesus didn’t come to die for the righteous but for poor lost sinners; no-one is too lost to be saved. God shows us His great love by sending His son as a sacrifice for our sins of the past, present and future!
So let’s look at a few more Bible teachings on this subject:
Loving God
In Deuteronomy 6:5 the Ten Commandments are summarized by this verse “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might”
When you have a right relationship with God and love Him as He desires, then all the other commandments make sense; however if your foundations are wrong then you will probably have trouble with the rest of the commandments too. It is most important in understanding God’s teaching that we love him with ALL our heart, soul and might.
Love in action
In 1 Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul speaks about the gifts God has given His people through the Holy Spirit, and he emphasizes that for them to be used effectively, they must be done in and through love. In verse 4 he states Charity (or love) is patient, longsuffering, kind, it doesn’t envy, it’s not puffed up. And he summarizes in verse 13 by saying “and now abideth faith, hope and charity but the greatest of these is charity” He’s not saying faith and hope are not important but their value is enhanced by love.
Loving each other
John 13:34, 35 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Jesus was talking to his disciples at the last supper and gave them this new commandment; however it was not much different to all He had said previously about the other commandments and could be summed up as “Love God, Love one another” see Mark 12, 29-31
Love within the Church
1 John 4:7, 8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
In 1 John, the apostle John was writing to the church of his day in general and certainly can be applied to us today. He states that the essence of God is love (not withstanding His holiness and righteousness) and as a result his followers should also love each other.
If you don’t you really must question your relationship with God, do you know Him as your own Lord and Saviour? Only then can you know the true meaning of love and it will show itself naturally in your relationships with others and particularly God’s people in the church.