Love

May 20

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us,” I John 4:7-14.

Love, not romantic love, not lust that is so much misrepresented as love in the movies, not self-

aggrandizement that is the exaggeration of the scriptural admonition to “love your neighbor as you love yourself,” (see Matthew 22:39 and Mark 12:31) but real, unadulterated, true love must be of God, for the WORD tells us that “God is love,” I John 4:8.

Good works is not necessarily love in action, for extending a helping hand to the needy may be motivated by something as unlike real love as the desire to have a tax break. Merely being touched by compassion when the plight of those who are not surrounded by the advantages of the technological age, is not necessarily indicative of love as much as the fact that our selfish heart has not become totally calloused.

Real love must reflect the compassion of Christ who suffered and died for the sins of mankind. Real love must be motivated by a desire to share His salvation with the lost, unlovely, thankless men of the world who care nothing for our crucified Lord.

Real love will compel us to lay down our desire for self-aggrandizement in all its forms in order to “take up our cross daily and follow Jesus,” Luke 9:23. Real love has a great cost as Jesus demonstrated when He allowed Himself to be crucified so we might live eternally.

Real love will enable us to lay down our lives if we must, in order that we never deny His name, for the Lord has said, “Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I deny before My Father,” Matthew 10:33.

Do we love? Can those around us see God who is love reflected in our love? Lord, help us to fulfill Your command to, “Love one another as I have loved you,” John 13:34.