LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

1 John 3: 16 – 23


Love is a many splendor thing. All you need is love. Love, love me do. Love makes the world go round.
Love is what we sing about. Love is what we write about. We look for love. We long for love.
But what is it?
The dictionary states that love is a series of emotions leading to a sense of strong affection and attachment.
I just love those clean, crisp, and emotionless definitions. Don't you?
Anyway, that is how the learned people in our society would explain it.
God says it another way.

16 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.

I think I like this definition rather than the clinical one that we come up with.
Once we know what love is, we have a choice to either express love or not, or accept it or not. The decision really is ours to make. And, it ain't easy bro, it can be hard work sometimes.

17 If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
18 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love.
19 This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.

Ya see, it's a lot easier to talk about love than to show it, and the consequences of our actions can be a bitter pill to swallow.
With me, before I came to Christ, I would mess up the love I felt for the people in my life, thereby driving them away and prematurely ending any relationship we may have developed. And I'll bet that we have all had similar experiences.
Thankfully, God was waiting for me at the end of my rope to teach me what love is and how to feel it as well as show it.
It really does come down to the bottom line and the one question we always ask ourselves,

Watcha' gonna do 'bout it?

Love or not. It's up to you.