Why Love?

Sometimes loving can be so taxing and exhausting. No really. We live in a world with so much hatred and so much "me" and no one else, and that can cause us to get a little, or a lot, jaded and indifferent. For the born-again believer, this will not happen. Yes really.

In our faith walk, one thing becomes increasingly evident: "We can't make it on our own strength!" We begin to see what the true purpose of love is and how it affects us and those around us. Love is more than just a little, weak parting sentence when you leave someone, and you say " love ya." It is more. Way more!

Love is what holds church fellowships together. Love is what keeps marriages progressing and growing. Love is a verb, or an action, but it begins in our heart, wherein lies the Holy Spirit. In the book of Colossians, Paul tells the church where their love comes from, and it comes from a confident hope of heaven. Paul was very consistent in his promotion of believers looking to heaven and the hope of it to generate a loving faith that impacted everyone they met. Paul wrote these words about this subject in Philippians 4:⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

We are to adjust our minds to think about the realities of heaven and the "real" home for those who are born again. This drives our reality to look at others and our world differently, and the love of Christ changes our vision to see the world as Jesus saw the world, positioned on a cross at Calvary. What were the words Jesus spoke from the cross as He was being crucified? Luke 23:³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. The soldiers are gambling for His clothes as He hangs on a cross to defeat the sin in our lives, and what a picture of love!! Real love. The Son of God sees the reality of humanity mocking Him as He dies, and He prays for their forgiveness. Only Jesus.

Why love? Because Jesus FIRST loved and He set the tone for the love we must have for a lost and dying world. We live in the hope and reality of a place in glory promised by our loving God, and we offer this hope to a lost world with love. One of my favorite verses in the New Testament is found in Colossians 3:Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. ³ For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

Why Love is not a trick question, but an introspective view into our hearts to generate a Jesus-like view into the reality of a lost world that needs to see true love that we have because Jesus has given it to us first-hand. Don't waste it, but share it wholeheartedly and generously. Hear the message clearly in 1 John 4:¹⁹ We love each other because he loved us first. Once again, it's all about Jesus.

Today's Message,

David Warren