February 2009 Meditation: Meaning of Love
Most
of us associate love with an ooey gooey feeling we have about someone
or something, but that is not true love. Many think love is looking the
other way when a friend does something wrong and not causing them to be
accountable for what they do. (This also means we have to be
accountable for our actions, too.) The Word of God should be where we
get our definition of love and it reveals to us how love acts.
If
you have been a Christian for any length of time, you have probably
heard of 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. In it the apostle Paul
gives a description of what love is. Another verse that is familiar to
believers and non-believers is that “God is Love” from 1 John 4:8.
Oftentimes, people use these scriptures to justify their sin. We have
to remember that because God is love He sent Jesus, but we have to make
Jesus our Lord in order to go to heaven. Because God is love, if we
have not received Jesus, He will judge us and we will spend eternity in
hell.
SO….WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LOVE?
In
order to truly love, we have to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. When we receive Him, God comes to lives in us which means love
abides in us since God is love.
Jesus gave two commandments when He was on this earth as a man. They are:
Mark 12:30 - 33:
And
you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the
first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than
these.” And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding,
with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s
neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and
sacrifices.”
First, we are instructed to love God with all
of our heart, but what does that mean? To love God means to be obedient
to His Word. When we have an intimate relationship with someone, we
might ask that person how we can show our love to them. We don’t have
to ask God. He already wrote it down for us and gave us the Holy Spirit
to get the job done.
There are some fundamental ways show God we
love Him and as we are able to reveal our love for Him, it will spill
over into our ability to love others the way God intended for us to.
WHEN WE LOVE GOD WE ARE OBEDIENT TO HIS WORD.
Just as parents want their children to be obedient, God desires the same thing in his children.
Deut. 11:1
“Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.
Deut. 11:13
“And
it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command
you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart
and with all your soul,
Deut. 11:22
“For if you carefully
keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD
your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—
Deut. 19:9
and
if you keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you
today, to love the LORD your God and to walk always in His ways.
John 14:15
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:21
He
who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he
who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and
manifest Myself to him.”
John 14:23
Jesus answered and said
to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will
love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:24
He
who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you
hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.be loved by My Father,
and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
We can
see by these verses that loving God and keeping His commandments, His
Word go hand in hand. We cannot say we love God and not do what His
Word instructs us to do. I had to come to the place in my life where I
realized that when I sin, I am not loving God. It is a fierce reality,
but when I do it, it keeps me in check because I am purposing to please
my heavenly Father and not my flesh.
When we do the Word, it
actually helps others to grow in God and it will lead people to
Christ. I believe one reason the world does not want to have anything
to do with Christians is because we are so inconsistent in our walk
with God. Hebrews 10:23-24 make it clear for me. It tells me when I
holdfast to God’s Word it will provoke others to do the same.
Hebrews
6:12 tells us to be followers of those who through faith and patience
inherit God’s promises. As we see someone walk in obedience to God’s
Word it should be an encouragement to us that we can do the same thing.
As we do it, others will have confidence to walk with God.
This month’s word to the wise is to be a lover by being obedient to God’s Word.
I love you…Have a great month!
Linda
Because I Love The Lord,
I Hate Evil And Love What Is Right.
(Psalm 45:7)