1 John 4: 7 - 11 NKJV
I got a text this past Saturday from my friend Dennis, who was in Hood River, Oregon for his grandsons wedding day. Granted, I had known that he was going to be on a road trip, so we figured that our weekly Sunday morning discussion breakfast would take a back seat as our leader would be absent. So I thought. As my phone blew up Sunday morning came a message from Dennis with the question for the morning, "Just what is love?" Keep in mind, he had just celebrated his grandsons wedding, so I guess it was a appropriate question to consider. So, along with another brother we climbed the hill Sunday morning, and talked. And so that question Dennis asked is, what is love? Can we indeed fall in and out of love? Is love something we ourselves control and invent? If this is true, do we choose to love God? Despite the fact that He first loved us? Well, as the apostle John tells us in 1 John 4, "Love is of God." So I guess we now know where love originated, now how do we manifest what our heavenly Father has given to us? Do we simply show our love to those who are kind to us? Do not even unsaved people do that? I feel that it is pretty obvious to see our Lords love for His children. In that while we were lost in our sin condition, that God loved us enough to send His only Son to die that we might be saved {John 3: 16-17}. If we are looking for the one true definition of love, we need only to lift our eyes to God for the answer. We are all the beneficiaries of our heavenly Fathers love towards us.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according tot the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not that of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2: 1 - 9 NKJV
We do well to take notice of what the apostle Paul tells us here in Ephesians 2, that while we were lost in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive in Christ Jesus. This is love, as God is also love. In a world filled with thoughts of "getting even" with those who do us wrong and "Putting people in their place," we seem to have lost track of the very love which saved us from our own condemnation. For as Paul tells us, we were all once "Children of wrath, just as the others." The one difference which seperates us from those who continue to walk in their trespasses and sins is that we have chosen to accept the love which our Lord has bestowed on us. Not that we deserved it, but that God has indeed shown us His nature by loving us when we were dead in our sins. For our Lord is not a vengeful God, but one who is rich in love and mercy. So, is love indeed what we have made it, a simple feeling of affection? Would that love we have created pass the test when it is placed side by side with our Lord who is Himself love? I think not. For unless God is the center of our love, we simply have an emotion of affection. Indeed, my prayer is that the newly married couple will know the true definition of love which God has blessed them with. They have a pretty good mentor already.
~Scott~
~On The Clackamas River Trail~
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