They Need Your Love!

Love is a word that is bandied about to describe our feelings towards everything. We love our cars. We love our homes. We love our this and we love our that. The problem is that we use it freely to describe “things” and “places” but when talking about other people, we often use negative words. Why do we do that? Because we have negative feelings towards others.

A man was driving down the freeway one morning in rush hour traffic and he noticed the car in front of him starting to weave back and forth. Trying to pass it, he got even with it and looked over to see a woman applying make-up with one hand and trying to steer with the other.

He thought, ‘How dare she put others at risk with her carelessness. She should just stick to paying attention!’ About that time, she veered toward his car and he got so shook he dropped his cell phone into his cup of coffee.

It would seem that we are quicker to be negative about others than we are to be positive about them. We are quick to judge others negatively because of the weird music they listen to, but we enjoy our country music that is about cheating and drinking.

We accuse others of being materialists and spending their money on selfish ‘things’, and then take our money and go out to the casino or to the horse track. What a different world this would be if we would look at others and zero in on their positive traits rather than on their negative traits. But, that would mean we would have to love others, wouldn’t it?

Since Valentine’s Day is this week, let’s talk about love, shall we?

1. WHAT IS LOVE?

If we are going to talk about love, we should first understand what love is. I would think that love is when you want the very best for another without any thought as to getting anything in return.

In 1 CORINTHIANS 10:24, it says

‘Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.’

Not only should we always be thinking of others in a positive way, we should always be acting on the behalf of others.

1 PETER 4:8 tells us,

‘Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.’

A couple had a marriage that seemed to get worse with each passing day. The wife finally saw a lawyer and said she wanted a divorce. But she told the lawyer that since her husband had hurt her so many times, she wanted to really put it to him and make him hurt really bad before she divorced him.

The lawyer, a Christian man, told her to go home and start pretending to love him a lot. He told her to do things for him as if she were totally in love with him. He said if she did this for three months, he would let down his guard and then she could spring the divorce on him and he would be devastated. So, the lady took his advice and went home and for three months she did everything she could to convince him that she loved him.

Three months later, she called the attorney. He asked if she still wanted the divorce and she said that she didn’t, because she had fallen madly in love with him all over again.

Love each other deeply, as it covers a multitude of sins. Think about the other person above yourself – without expecting anything back. When we do these things, God also instills that love in our hearts and when something is in our hearts, it is in our words and in our actions.

We are talking about love, but some do not love. Lets’ talk about those who have ….

2. A HEART WITHOUT LOVE

1 TIMOTHY 1:5-7 tells us about people who do not love.

‘The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.’

In 1 JOHN 3:10 we are told who is and who is not a child of God.

‘This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.’

Some consider themselves good Christians, but actually have no room in their hearts for love. They are so wrapped up in what they want or need that they have no room left to think about what somebody else needs or wants. I will tell you right now that is not a sign of Godliness.