LOVE ONE ANOTHER

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“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (I John 4:11-12)

The word “love”, as it is used in the Biblical Texts, has two obvious qualities: 1) The master teacher on love, John, taught that love has its own origins in God; “We love, because He first loved us.” (I John 4:19); “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (I John 4:10); “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (I John 4:7)….GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF LOVE!!! WITHOUT GOD THERE IS NO LOVE!!! To live a love-filled life is to be God-filled!!….2) Love is a relationship with persons; “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (I John 4:11); “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (I John 4:20)….True Godly love prompts us to seek others! If we truly love one another, then God abides in us and His love is perfected or matured in us (v.12).

Love is not a word that describes our feelings….It is not a technique by which we fulfill our needs….It is not an ideal, abstract and pure, on which we meditate or converse….IT IS ACTING IN CORRESPONDENCE WITH OR IN RESPONSE TO GOD IN RELATION TO PERSONS!!!

(Love) occurs 349 times in 311 verses in the NASB; I believe this shows that it is very important to God, therefore should be very important to us and how we live our lives as Christ followers….”Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;” (Romans 12:10); “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8); “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (I Cor. 13:2)

WE ARE NOTHING WITHOUT LOVE!! LOVE CHARACTERIZES GOD AND WHAT HE MANIFESTED IN THE GIFT OF HIS SON (John 3:16) – IT IS MORE THAN MUTUAL AFFECTION; IT EXPRESSES UNSELFISH ESTEEM OF THE OBJECT LOVED….CHRIST’S LOVE FOR US IS UNDESERVED AND IS WITHOUT ANY THOUGHT OF RETURN!!!
THE LOVE THAT WE SHOW TO OTHERS AS JESUS’ FOLLOWERS, SHOULD BE THE VERY SAME TYPE OF LOVE THAT CHRIST SHOWED TOWARD EACH ONE OF US!!!!!

WILL WE LOVE EACH OTHER AS JESUS HAS LOVED US??

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