Sermon Central
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Love Is A Four-Letter Word
Contributed by Dr. Craig Nelson on May 18, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: Many four-letter words are used tritely as vulgar and profane slang or to curse someone.
The word "love" is also a four-letter word used so commonly that its true meaning and significance has been lost. People say they 'love' their house, car, clothes, church, school, pets, food, family, friends, hairdo, music, makeup, movies, etc., and they 'love' God. The word 'love' is also used to replace the word 'appreciate' when asking someone to do something for you (ex: I would love it if you..."
BIBLICAL LOVE DEFINED
The Bible speaks of "agape" and "phileo" love. "Agape" has been defined as a self-sacrificial love committed to the highest good. It is a love not dependent on emotions. Without it, no one could become Born-Again (John 3:16). With "agape" love, God set aside His wrath against humanity and poured it out on the Cross.
"Phileo" love is best defined as tender affection, love from the emotions in a person's soul. It is that kind of love that responds to love from another. It is the love of true friends, a child's love for their parents or another child, or love between a husband and wife. This kind of love can be casual or intense. "Phileo" love can't be relegated to just human emotion. Jesus used this word in describing the Father's love for Him (John 5:20). "Phileo" is used in describing the Father's feelings toward The disciples of Jesus (John 16:27).
It is hard to fathom that we often use the same word that describes the character and nature of God and His relationship with us for things of this world. The term 'love' was never meant to refer to our possessions or pets.
GOD IS LOVE
What makes Christianity completely different and unique from all the other religions in the world is 'love' because it is the only religion where Jesus Christ, who is love Himself, comes to dwell within each willing heart when invited to.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1 John 4:7-21 ESV)
The passionate love of God is the blazing fire at the heart of all creation which resounds with the proof that God is love. God thinks about you every moment of every day. His love will never vary or change. That God would love even the vilest of sinners is the greatest mystery of eternity.
God's very essence is love. He has always been love, even before He created us. He has always sought to have a close relationship with us. We were made for this love. The entire story of humanity is wrapped up within it. Love is why we were created, and love is our eternal destiny.
I am firmly convinced that every human being has an unquenchable longing for love and to love and be loved because God is love (1 John 4:8). A person's love for another is just a subtle shadow of God's love for EVERYONE! Jesus Christ is the very definition of love itself and the empirical evidence that it exists. He is the embodiment of love, and everything that He says or does is motivated by it.
