What Is Love

What Is Love

Scripture Reference I John 4:7-12 (KJV)

I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

INTRODUCTION

Since the bible declares and I believe that God is a Spirit (John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.) It is difficult to imagine what a definite picture of Him would look like.

However since the bible also declares that God is love (verse 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.) then it is safe to say that we see a clear picture of Him when we love one anther.

God looks, feels, taste, smells and sounds like love

So when we go out of our way to spread love we are showing the world just how good God really is

MAIN BODY

When we look at the word love it carries different meanings to different people. For instance, some view love as something that should be given freely while others view it as something that should be shared in only the most intimate and discriminate way.

When God introduced the word love in the bible he was talking to Abram about offering his son who Abram loved dearly:

God tests us by seeing if we are willing to offer the thing that we love the most for his glory (Genesis 22:1,2 1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.)

God wanted to be sure that Abram was willing to give anything to Him.

Are we able to be used like this by God right now?

Can He have need of the one thing that we truly love and expect us to give it to Him no matter how much we love it?

Are we placing the love of the thing, person or place in our lives over the love of God?

We must always remember that we serve a jealous God one who makes no secret that He wants to be first in our lives all by himself. It’s the first of the ten commandments (Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.)

God also tells us that we should always seek him first (Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.)

So really when we want to get anything that we declare that we love then we should try to amplify God in our lives and watch and see if the thing that we seek gets closer to us

As we look at our scripture for today it is extremely specific about joining the word love and God together. In fact John writes in (verse 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.) that a person that does not love does not know God

In other words without love you can not have an intimate relationship with God

There are so many talented and gifted artist who have provided us with so many beautiful pictures that give us so much of an image of what God should look like but John writes that (verse 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.)

I am sure that if you are anything like me then there are times that it is hard to even like the people that we are supposed to love

There are times that I have a hard time even speaking to my wife and the bible has ordered me to love her

It is during these times that I get a better revelation of what the love of God is really like