The book of Colossians 3:14 says, “Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”
Love . . . Love . . . Love . . . The people of the world want love very much. Loving, being loved, and making love are viewed as the ultimate high. Love is seen as the way to experience emotional extremes: you’ll never be as happy nor as sad as when you’re in love.
As Christians we have a great responsibility to love others, but how do we fulfill it? By understanding our resource. Love is available to us, and it’s our fault if we don’t tap the necessary resource. We are to submit to the Spirit and learn how to love. We must purify our hearts by confessing our sin and realize the urgency of attracting others to Christ through our love. We are to make a conscious choice to love others, fellowship with other believers, and concentrate on others rather than ourselves. And we must consider the effect of loving others. Love given is inevitably returned.
The world’s love is unforgiving, conditional, and self-centered. It focuses on desire, self-pleasure, and lust-the very opposite of God’s perfect love. People search for love, but it’s not true love; it is Satan’s perversion. Instead of taking from people, love them in a way that communicates thankfulness. Remember, God’s love is unselfish and thankful, but the world’s love is selfish and thankless.
When God saved us, He made us a new creation with the capacity to fulfill the debt of love. The reservoir of love is inexhaustible. We have the privilege of representing God in the world by loving others as He loved them and receiving love in return.
Today’s music feeds that quest for love. Throughout much of it is the same underlying message: either the fantasy of a love sought or the despair of a love lost. People continue to chase that elusive dream. They base their concept of love on what it does for them. Songs, plays, films, books, and TV programs continually perpetuate the fantasy- the dream of a perfect love perfectly fulfilled.
The key to obeying the law of God is love. When we love others, we will automatically obey the law. You won’t commit adultery if you love someone. That’s because love doesn’t defile others or steal purity. Only lust and selfishness do that. If you love someone, your love renders useless the command not to kill. I don’t need to be reminded not to kill people if I love them. When you love someone, you won’t steal from him either. Therefore you don’t need to be told not to steal. Nor will you covet what someone else has when you love him…because love doesn’t replace the law; it fulfills the law. Through love, we can fulfill God’s love.
When you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you love your neighbor as yourself, you can do what you want because you will be the person God wants you to be. We are able to love God and manifest the many facets of our Genuine Love for God only because He first loved us (1 John 4: 7, 10, 19).
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not
brag and is not arrogant,
5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not
provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things.
8Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they
will be done away; if there are tongues, they will
cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
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