Love

The most desired thing in all of life is Love.  There is more time and money spent on love than any other thing in the world.  From the time we are born till the day we die we are always searching for love.  But what is this thing we call love?  The young child in the arms of their mother or father is where it starts.  They want and need love and security.  As they grow up they need friends to fill that need for love.  Teenagers will do anything to be recognized and accepted by others because the desire for love is so strong.  Their whole days are wrapped around one thing, impressing others because they need acceptance and love.  Even the most hardened criminal is looking for love and acceptance and most likely turned to their way of life in rebellion because they did not get the love and acceptance that they needed.

God is love.  He created us with the need for love.  His word is filled with love and His commandments specifically declare we are to love.  But do we really know what love is?  I think not.  Actually a better statement would probably be “I don’t think very many people have really thought much about it”.  The 10 commandments start with “Love God” and Jesus summed them all up with this, “love God and love your neighbor as yourself”.  We are even supposed to love our enemies!  So, what is it?  What is love?

First, love can be received to fill that hollow void in our hearts that God created just for love.  That is what the first paragraph is all about, filling that void.  When people say “Oh I love this” or “Oh I love that” what they are really saying is that thing makes me feel so good.  It is going into that void for their fulfillment.  That is not love…that is desire.  When we have desire and later find unpleasantness we replace that desire with something else in hopes that it will continue to bring pleasure of fulfillment.  When you place people in the mix we can see that if they begin to cause unpleasantness the natural thing to do is to replace them with someone else in hopes that they will remain exciting and fulfilling.  Again, that is not love, it is desire.  Desire is the opposite of love.  Desire is something to receive…it is a receiving.  Love is something to give…it is a giving.  Desire and Love are oneway streets and they are going in opposite directions.

Now love, like the bond between a mother and her child, is always there through the good and the bad.  A mother does not stop loving her child because of unpleasantness.  True love is unconditional.  God loves us with an unconditional love.  The love that He expects us to give is an unconditional love.  When things become unpleasant in a relationship love covers the unpleasantness and responds with kindness and forgiveness.  Love reaches out like a mother to protect and to bring back peace and joy to the one receiving the love.  Loving an enemy would not be any different, shelter and protect, that is the will of our heavenly Father.

Look around.  How many do you see with genuine love?  How many do you see who are putting the welfare of others above themselves?  Do you cover the sins of others with love or do you tell  all to make sure others are aware of the unpleasantness that you have received?  Jesus said while he was talking about the last days “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” and things will wax worse and worse just before He comes.  How will He know us when He comes?  We shall be known by our love.  Will there enough love shining in you for the Lord to see you when He returns for the church?  Are you living for others or are you living for yourself, giving or receiving. 

Ken Wyatt