Victor Ekong
Lets consider some biblical definitions of Love.
Love has been from the foundation of the earth, and will continue after the earth has passed away. Every other thing ends here but love never ends.
Do you want to know why love will never end? It’s because God will never end. Who is God? God is love. God never dies, therefore love never dies. Let us critically look at the scripture below.
So what is Love according to the Bible?
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. NRSV
We all as Christians, are blessed with different gifts of the Spirit as recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. And all these gifts are for the edification of the body of Christ towards achieving the ultimate goal which is heaven at last.
But the bible has clearly made it known that even if you manifest in all those gifts but without love, you are like an empty vessel. It means that all your manifestations have been in vain.
All good works should stem from love. Whatever we do as the body of Christ should be rooted in love, both individually and collectively.
Love is patient
If we have love for one another, we should be patient with one another. We should be able to understand that we are all unique and different in our ways.
We all are coming together from different backgrounds and orientations. There’s need to accommodate our individual differences. Your spiritual speed may not be the same with others.
To help us grow spiritually, there’s need to accommodate our weaknesses while encouraging one another. We should understand that nobody is perfect. We’re all working towards perfection.
Christ didn’t die for the perfect but for the imperfect. We should ensure we do not overwhelm others or weary them while trying to drag them along in the faith.
Love is kind
Jesus Christ, being our role model, was attributed to be compassionate. When you read through all the miracles He did in the Bible, it’d always been because He had compassion on them. There is no compassion without love.
So compassion is deep-rooted in love. We need to imbibe this compassionate heart of Jesus so we can love others the way He loves us.
Love is not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude
Where there is envy, there is no love. As Christians, we should live a life of contentment and show support to others. Envy breeds anger, and anger breeds bitterness.
These should not be found in the life of a Christian. The only thing that eliminates anger and bitterness is love for one another.
There is no love in trying to put others down. Arrogance and being boastful directly attack the confidence of others. It kills other people’s spirit. It makes them feel rejected. It makes them feel inferior.
It makes them feel they’re not doing enough. Don’t make others feel they’re not good enough. We need to help each other with words of encouragement. In the presence of arrogance and being boastful is the absence of love.
Love does not insist on its own
Letting go is love. Jesus asked us to give our coat even when they ask for our cloth. There are things you let go not just for peace to reign, but because of love.
Love that accommodates others despite their weaknesses. Play the fool but gain them for Christ.
Love does not allow you to lord it over others. Love gives you the opportunity for expression. Love makes one open to correction and advise.
Love is not irritable or resentful
The disciples of Jesus must have made a whole lot of mistakes as new converts while following Him. But He forborne all their mistakes knowing they’re as imperfect as humans that they were.
Love does not segregate. We are all one in Christ. Why would a grafted branch of a tree call other branches illegitimate? Why would an usher or a priest show favouritism to a wealthy church member over others?
This is not the example Christ showed us. Jesus related mostly with the sick, the poor and the lowly than the wealthy. It is sad the kind of attitude given to our brethren that missed it somehow and are back in faith.
Do not let your attitude be the reason someone is refusing to come to or remain in Christ.
Love does not rejoice in wrong doing but rejoices in truth
Misfortune has befallen some of our brethren and the response of their fellow brethren is that they deserve it. What!? Who deserves to be saved if God is judging us the way we judge others? Who’ll still be alive?
According to the teachings of Jesus, we should mourn with those that mourn and rejoice with those that rejoice. Let the burden of your brethren be your burden. Do not make them feel they’re the worst sinners.
We should not also be comfortable with sin. We should not take pride in sin. Some of us are happy enjoying proceeds from lies, cheating and deceit. Some live immoral lives and feel nothing is wrong with it.
We need to seek love because that is absence of love. When we seek the good of others, we won’t do anything to hurt them. Love is the answer.
Love rejoices with other people’s achievement. It is not jealous and it’s not envious. Love stands on the side of truth because truth comes from the heart of love.
It does not matter the circumstances. The heart rejoices when truth prevails. A man of truth is loved by many.
Love bears and endures all things
Jesus was able to bear all the suffering s because of His love for the world. How are we bearing others’ faults? Are we taking clue from Jesus Christ? Or are we charging at any slightest provocation?
If Jesus could bear all the sins of the world because of love, then we have no excuse. Let us, out of love, forgo each other’s faults. Remember the prayer Jesus taught us; and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us (Luke 11:4).
God forgave us all our sins even before we repented because He first loved us before we came to love Him. Why can’t we then readily forgive others? That is love in action.
One way or the other, someone must have got to our nerves at one time or another. All we need do is to forgive, as good ambassadors of Christ here on earth.
As couples, it’s very important we forgive one another. Let our children experience from you what love is.
Love believes all things
We believe all things not because we’re fools. It’s simply because of love. I told a woman who I was discussing with that the husband could be coming home from the wrong place, and tells her lies.
I asked her not to argue but to believe and continue praying for him out of love. Love covers multitude of sin when it is in place.
Love never ends
Like I mentioned earlier, the gifts of the Spirit all end here. They don’t go beyond here.
Who are you going to be prophesying to in heaven? In which other tongues are you going to be speaking in heaven? And who will do the interpreting? What are you going to be doing with words of wisdom and words of knowledge in heaven? Who are going to be healing in heaven? What about miracles? Discerning of spirits?
Heaven is perfect. There’s no other need for perfection over there. That’s where love is taking us to. Every other thing ends here, but love never ends, love continues to, and in heaven.
Do you have the love of Christ in you? If you don’t have the love of Christ in you, it means you don’t have the Holy Spirit in you as well.
And without the Holy Spirit that empowers you to love “your neighbour as you love yourself,” you’re not a child of God and you don’t know God (1 John 4:7-8). God is love.
Love is not a choice, it’s a commandment
Yes Love is not a choice, it’s a commandment. Jesus said I’m not giving you a recommendation, I’m not making a suggestion, I’m giving you a command. Love one another. John 13:34
How are we to love one another?
The same way that Jesus loved us. That is an unselfish self giving, seeking first the good of others. Jesus say that if you have that kind of love, the whole world will sit up and take notice because they don’t see such anywhere.
You can revolutionize a whole situation by demonstrating the love of God; but bear in mind it’s not an option it’s not a recommendation, it’s not a suggestion, it is a commandment and so if we don’t do it, what are we? In one simple word, we are disobedient.
We can talk as much as we like about love, faith and righteousness but do nothing for the people who really need us. There’s no shortage of people who really need us which is one thing we cannot complain about
They’re not far from any of you there are people who desperately need to be loved. They’re lonely, they’re not cared for, they have no answers, they’re desperate and you don’t have to walk far from where you live to find people like that.
I’ve come to see that it’s the purpose of God. It’s what God is looking for, it’s what God is waiting for.
Let me ask you this question. Are you not tired of superficiality, tired of empty religion, tired of empty confessions which you make to get something out of God but we never expected to fulfill?
The Bible said in John 3:16 that “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
He first loved us, even before we knew Him, by sending Jesus Christ to come and die to save us from sin.
Jesus is the One that shares this love abroad in your heart through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). if you don’t have Jesus in your life, you don’t have this love.
Say this prayer today
My God and my Father
Thank You for loving me even in my sin
I’ve now seen my wrong
And please I’m sorry for my sins
I ask that You give me the love Your Spirit gives
I welcome Jesus the Christ into my heart
And I ask that You help me to continue living in Your love
Lord no matter what it takes, open that fountain in me. I don’t want to be superficial, I don’t want to be just a church-goer. Lord I want to bring joy to your heart. I want you to be satisfied with me not with what I do but with me. I want to share fellowship with you in the deep places.
When the Spirit of God moves, it’s the humble that get blessed. People that have no claims, no pride, no self righteousness. Lord here I am. I’m just a pool fill me in Jesus name! Amen.
