Love

1 Cor  13:13
Now these three remain, faith hope and live and the greatest of these is love.

Love - The Bible dictionary describes it as affection, goodwill and benevolence. This is love that is not emotional, or about how we feel, but love that comes from the very heart of who God is. God is love.

Some thoughts on Love.

1. We love because God first loved us.God loves us with an amazing love. Before we knew him, he knew us and loved us.

Romans 5:8
And God showed his great love for us. While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

This is amazing love - the word used for sinners has the connotation of "devoted to sin". So while we were so far from God while we were devoted to another way of life, he sent Jesus to die for us because he loves us so much.
1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another for love is from God.
1 John 4:10
This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1John 3:1
See how very much our heavenly father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are.

The KJV says, "Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us". The word for given/bestowed is "granted, from ones self - not forced but given of ones own accord - for the benefit and advantage of another."

Not only does God love us, but it is bestowed or given for our benefit, because God wanted to.
God's love for us is the basis, the foundation of our love for others.

1 John 4:11
Dear friends, since God loved us so much, we surely ought to love each other.

There is a mutual reciprocity that happens when we understand that because God loves us we love others. Loving each other is actually an indication of our love for God.

2. Love dictates how we live1 Cor 13:1-13 is an amazing chapter on love and how to live in love for others, respecting and honouring one another. I encourage you to read it.Paul writes to the church to correct behaviour, teach them how to use their God given gifts and talents and to have order in their meetings. But, he says the main thing is is love.

Its not about gifts and talents and doing amazing things. It is about the motivation we have for exercising gifts and talents. Love is not about giving up ourselves to martyrdom, or having the best prophecy, or even moving mountains, its about living a life in what Paul calls a more excellent way. Greater even than faith and hope, is love. Love for God and love for others that dictates how we live. (Jesus also tells us to love our neighbour, to love others - Mark 12:30-31)

Paul goes on to tell the Corinthians that it is time to grow up. Its time to put away childish behaviour and petty bickering, jealousy, pride, rudeness and demanding our own way. These are childish behaviours and we are to put them away and to mature into someone who lives a life of patience, kindness, forgiveness, truth, faith and hope.

We are called to love one another, living and loving as Christ did - he laid down his life for us. In both John 13:34 and John 15:12,17 Christ says we are to love one another as he has loved us. How did Christ love - he spoke truth, he cared, he had compassion, he corrected, he forgave, he gave up his own rights and died for us in our place.

Gal 5:13 says "by love, serve on another". Love dictates how we live.

Challenge: How do we stack up against the list in 1 Cor 13?

3. Love reaches out.When we love, we reach out in love to others, so that they too can know God's amazing love.
The one thing that Jesus said would mark us as his followers was our love for one another.

John 13:34-35
So now I am giving you a new commandment: love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

Jesus says the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbours as ourselves. Our neighbour being anyone we chance to meet in a day.

When we love, we will seek to right injustice. 1 Cor 13:6 - love is never glad about injustice. (This is not about being annoyed with someone because they corrected our behaviour or put boundaries in place or did something we didn't like)!The injustice here is like the injustice of a judge, unrighteousness of heart and life and like a deed violating a law - its an act of unrighteousness.

Love encourages us - in fact it compels us to reach out into areas of injustice wherever we find it. The challenge for us is not to get caught up in what we feel is injustice which is actually petty selfishness, but to put that aside and pursue real justice for those who do not have it.

Prov 21:3
The lord is more pleased when we do what is just and right than when we give him sacrifices.

In Matt 23:23 Jesus had a go at the Pharisees for being nit picking about what they tithe, but forgetting that mercy, justice and faith were more important. Jesus is not interested in our nit picking over small matters. We are to put that aside and get on with justice, mercy and faith. Lets not become so consumed by the small things in life that we ignore real injustice when we see it.

Prov 24:11-12
Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don't stand back and let them die. Don't try to avoid responsibility by saying you didn't know about it. For God knows all hearts and he sees you. He keeps watch over your soul, and he knows you knew! And will judge all people according to what they have done.

So many people are caught up in situations of injustice where they are sentenced to a death, if not physically, then by the environment they are in. When we see injustice we are to do something and not pretend we didn't know about it. Once we know about something we are to do something about it! Our love for our neighbours compels us to do something. There are people who will die without Christ, because of injustice.
What will we do?

ConclusionGod loved us, so we love others - he gave us the foundation for love. Love is meant to dictate to us the way we live and how we treat others in our day to day life. Love compels us to reach out to others and to exercise justice.

What will you do today to love others and stop injustice?