I LOVE YOU! WHAT DO YOU MEAN? (Pub)
Literally, love is a feeling of strong constant affection for a person ….attraction that includes sexual desire. Strong affection could arise out of personal ties, on sexual desire and perhaps admiration, benevolence or common interest. This four letter word could be a noun as in the name of a person or a verb as a doing word or action; could be used in subjective term that is open to wide interpretations. When someone says, “I love you,” you string back because the person may say same thing towards a dog, a car, a house or even a phone. He/she may not understand what he/she is saying or what it means; may mean to say, “I like you.” So, what exactly do you mean?
Our society refers to love as something one falls into, like an intense attraction to another person – call it “love at first sight” or infatuation! It’s something that makes you feels good when affections are returned in kind and bad when affections are spurned. Love is also described as the most spectacular, indescribable, deep euphoric feeling for someone. It is an unconditional affection with no limits or conditions. When in love you want to be around each other, can do anything for each other and tell the other anything without fear of rejection. Everything seems brighter, happier and more wonderful when you’re in love. Blaise Pascal once said, “When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.” What do you mean when you say, I love you?
There are different types of love: The word love has one meaning in English but in Greek is expressed in different words: [i] Erotic love: flesh love; physical love or romantic love that may end up in sex. You are loved for what you’ve or what you can give. [ii] Phillo love: [mother/ child]. A mother’s tender care never ceases towards the child she bears. This kind of love can be brought into marriage but it cannot sustain you. It also includes brotherly love towards someone we really like. [iii] Agape love: The deepest, unconditional and sacrificial love. If agape love did not come into your life when you became born again, then you will go back to the world. It is based on doing good to another person; you give rather than receive. “Love cares more for others than for self.” This love made Jesus gave his life and died the death of shame on the cross for us. [Iv] Storgay: The love of one’s relatives. This could mean ‘kind affectionate’ often find in the Church, family and supposingly cultural associations.
Christian love is not a feeling and it’s a command (an instruction, a precept) of the Lord, “I give you a new commandment – love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34). Indeed, the heart of Christian love is Jesus’ commands, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Again, “This is love that we walk according to His commandment” (2 John 1:6). The Apostle James added, you fulfill the royal law of the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well” (James 2:8). “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). It does not matter how much of the gifts we operate in, if we have not God’s love inside us, it means nothing. Everything we need must come from a heart of real, genuine love. God’s love compels us to reach out to the lost world. In His love, God can heal, change, renew and transform us. Little wonder St. Augustine said, “There is no greater invitation to love than in loving first.”
The Epistle of John says God is Love. If you are of God you must have love in your heart [1 John 4:7ff]. This is why a lot of believers are not genuine. When we say we are born of God, our inner minds are renewed and the old things are passed away. Verse 7 says He that loves knows God. Verse 10: God loves us and send His son [John 3:16]. Love gives; you cannot claim to love God and do not give to Him. That is microwave love – heat it and when you bring it out, it gets cold. Verse 11 says if God loves us then we should share His love with one another. It is impossible to claim to love God that we do not see yet hate one another that we see.
Love means accepting a person as you are. If you do not forgive another, you do not love God because God created the person you hate. An open rebuke is better than secret love. In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus was asked which the greatest commandment was. Jesus answered: love your God with the whole of your being and love your neighbor as you love yourself. When we love, we give. God loved the world that He gave His only begotten son….. (John 3:16). When we do not love God, we do not give God: do not give offerings or pay tithe to meet the needs in God’s house, to missions, to evangelism and to the needy. Whatever you do to one of these brethren, you do it to Me. “You obey the law of Christ when you bear the burden or offer each other a helping hand” (Gal. 6:2). God measures our love to Him in the way we accept and treat one another.
The greatest challenge of Christian life is not loving someone that loves you, but loving an enemy. Jesus left us with some tough and thoughtful instructions: Love your enemies, show kindness to those who hate you, bless those who curse you. Pray for those who insult you (Luke 6:27-28). Be ready to make friends with your opponent (Matthew 5:25). If anyone strikes you on the right check, turn the other to him also (Matt. 5:39). Whenever you stand up to pray, forgive any offence that you have against anyone; that your Father who is in heaven also may forgive you your offences (Mark 11:25). Little surprised that Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” Former South Africa President, Nelson Mandela once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” He also said, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Another great mind, Rabbi Rafael opines, “When a man sees that a neighbor hates him, then he must love him more than before to fill up the gap.” Yet gem another, Rene Voillaume, sums it up this way, “To love as Jesus loves; that is not only the Lord’s precept, it is our vacation. When all is said and done, it is the only thing we have to learn, for it is perfection.” I do not know about you, but me and a great number of those in the dance of love struggle every day with Jesus’ command to love our enemies. Could it be the reason, when in fellowship and a prayer point is raised against an enemy, the house vibrates like an earthquake. We call down fire and destruction on our enemies.
“The doctrine of divine love is considered to be at the heart of God’s relationship with humanity and Christians are called on to display equal love in human relationship.” Apostle Paul advised the saints: if you speak in tongues of men and angel but have no love, its noise. If you have gifts of prophesy and understands all the mysteries of knowledge; have faith that move the mountain but have no love its folly and nothing. Love suffers long …not self seeking…….. [1 Corinthians 13:1ff]. The God of love is the God of justice. In the last day, God shall opens the book of the law and if your name is not there, He will open the book of life [the book of love] to see how far you have love in your heart. If God would weigh us by law or count our iniquities, no one would pass His measure or stand before Him. God will therefore weigh us by the measure of our love to Him and brethren. Make sure you are not wanting there. Love one another for love covers all.
Reach: Evangelist/Elder Ogbonnaya, Godswill at: Email: weefreeministries@yahoo.com; Web: weefreeministries.org OR P. O. Box 720035, Houston, Texas, 77272. Phone: 832.881.3929©.