Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15.5.

8:39 PM

Wonder how many of us have fallen in Love before.

How can we tell if this is real Love or Lust? Or just some wierd feeling stirring inside?

From the King James Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

4 Charity Suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemingly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth...

Let us take a look at what God says is true love:

A. Biblical Love is Long Suffering (patient)

Biblical love is patient, meaning - we are not quick to anger or take offense. Loving Patience is being able to allow ourselves to be inconvenienced or taken advantage of by a person, over and over again. When steven was being stoned to death, his last words was that of loving forgiveness... He said:" Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. (Acts 7:60) With his dying breath, he begged for the forgiveness of those who stoned him. His main concern was those people stoning him, not his pain or his suffering. This is true biblical Love. Are we able to put others before ourselves, to overlook the wrong people do to us, and pray for them? Forgive them, and Love them that do evil to us?

Jesus told us to turn our cheek, and let those that slap us, slap the other side of our face too. Are we able to follow this teaching, and let people take advantage of us like that? The World would think it is a stupid thing to do. It is illogical, not realistic. But if we know how to love, we can recieve prosecution, hurt and suffering with Love for those who do these things to us. Can we love? and have we started Loving others?

By fighting back, defending ourselves physically, shouting, scolding or quarreling with a person help the person to realise his mistake? To overcome his fault? Does it show that person that we are loving and forgiving? No.

Philippians 2:3-4 says : "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."

Lets put others before ourselves, learn to forgive and love everyone, including our enemies. Then only will we be a shining light for God.

B. Biblical Love is Kind.

Kindness is being able to give anything to others, to sacrifice anything, everything for others. To be kind is to be helpful, to serve others and be gracious to others. We should be generous, desirous of other's welfare and work towards it.

C. Biblical Love does not Envy.

Being not envious means not to be jealous over what other people have. We should not keep thinking of having everything else that other people have, and wish we had more good things than others. We make end up resenting what others have. And this is selfish thinking. Jealousy is dangerous and can end up in hatred. So rather than covet what others have, Be content and satisfied with what you have.

James 3:14-18 warns us:

"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

D. Biblical Love vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up. It does not parade itself in front of others.

This also means that It does not show off, or brag. Bragging is showing off our accomplishments and trying to tell people how good we are, how well off we are, and try to make people jealous of what we have. Love does not remind a person of the great "sacrifices" you have made for them.

Its like trying to show people that we are more spiritual than they are. Just like the pharisees did. We should not be proud, but humble. We should not go around criticising everything else others do and put ourselves out as an exhibit for others to see how good you are.

E. Biblical Love does not behave unseemly (rudely).

True love is not rude. It is not confrontational. It always seeks peace, and is polite. True love is kind, and cares about how people feel. In fact, all aspects of Love is quite similar. If the Love of Christ is in a person's heart, He will be long suffering, will be kind, and not envy others. How often have we acted rudely to people and achieved something in doing so? If we can exercise Love in the way we deal with people, People would react better towards us.

F. Biblical Love does not seek its own.

Do we always want our own way, do we force our opinions on others and demand that people lissten to our requests, and follow our every instruction. We always feel that the World should revolve around us and we should be the main focal point, where everyone in the world should meet our needs. We often accuse others of not be loving towards us and not being kind towards us... But, we do not see ourselves as being utterly selfish in expecting everyone to do good to us before we reciprocate. Most of the time, people who digress into this state will see themselves as right all the time and will not acknowledge any faults of their own. They act as though they were put on this earth to correct everyone else. However, they fail to realise that they are seeking their own interests and are not really interested in others. They feel superior to be able to see the faults of others.

Wouldn't it be so much nicer if we could live our lives for others? Reaching out to help others, to seek 24h a day to fulfill other people's dreams and desires? What great joy we would experience by seeing other people happy and seeing their needs being met.

True Love would be like that. And how often would be practice this type of love for others? And how often have we seen it in the lives of others?

G. Biblical Love is not Provoked.

To provoke means "to arouse anger, a convulsion or sudden outburst".

Biblical Love guards itself against being irritated, or angered by things done against it. We'll be slow to anger and quick to forgive.

Ephesians 4:26 reminds us not to allow the sun to go down on our wrath. How can we say we Love someone and yet get easily provoked and get angry easily with the person? What is the benefit like that? Doesn't it cause more hurt feelings? How can here be reconciliation where there is provocation?

H. Biblical Love thinks no evil.

Biblical Love does not keep accounts of the wrongs people do to us. We do not bear grudges, we do not harbour ill intents on others. We should not be prejudice and cold hearted towards people. We should not seek to fault, seek to criticize, Yet, we should be always ready to Forgive and forget, and not always rake up the past to show how much bad stuff had been done towards you. It does not always harbor the hurt others do to us.

Past Hurts are like stains. a Love based forgiveness is God's stain remover, and it can remove all stains and restore our preace, joy and fellowship with people although they have hurt us time and again. The love of Christ seeks to bring peace to us. To show love and always think the best of others.

I. Biblical Love believes all things.

True Love believes the best of every person. Even if a person is accused of being guilt, You will not consider him/her guilty until the truth is found out. You will stick up for him/her and defend him/her. Even if they are found guilty, We should extend our love to help that person overcome his/her failure and encourage him/her. How wonderful it would be to know when you're accused falsely, criticized or belittled, that a friend/brother stands up for you.

J. Biblical Love endures all things.

It refuse to give up, surrender, stop believing or hoping. No matter how horrible the situation, how long the suffering, how humiliating the attack, The Love of Christ in One's heart will stop the desire to fight back to give up and walk away. We Love - We pray. Love keeps the door of our heart open. And we pray for God's intervention. Yes, the tears will flow, the hurt will swell up inside us until we think we'll die from a broken heart, but Biblical Love will overcome all these in the end. It will endure to the end.

K. Biblical Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Simply put, Love will simply not stop loving. True Love will never die. It will last forever.

Conclusion...

Have we be Loving towards our friends and family members? Have we been able to Love the way Christ did? Are we willing to give up everything we have to love a person?

It is wonderful to love. To be at peace with others. To live for other's benefit.

A person who truly loves will rarely get bitter, will not criticize others, will be quick to forgive, slow to anger... Love hurts, But True love will endure to the end. How much Love do we have for others? Lets ask ourselves this question and Work towards Loving our neighbours as ourselves.

God help us.

Thank God for the friends he has given me. I thank God i've been able to practice biblical Love towards my friends the way it should be. Though it often hurts real bad, "O Lord give me strength to endure and never give up Loving."

Please pray for my friends once again.

Luke

Friday, March 23, 2007

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