The word “love” is mentioned in the Bible over 500 times; God surely considers love essential to our lives. God is love. Without love we are lost. One of the first Scriptures in the Bible to stress “love” is (Deuteronomy 6:5) where Moses instructs his people to; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Love begins with God. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Do you remember your very “first-love?” I do! Her name was Jeri Stubb________ and she was my very first girlfriend back in the fifth grade. I would do anything to impress her, like try to kick the volleyball over the school fence, hang upside down from the monkey bars, and make strange faces for her! Back then I believed I loved her…I did as a 9 year old boy could. I made her several valentines that year even beyond Valentine’s Day!
Now, after all these many years, I have a more memorable “girlfriend” and she is my lovely wife Sally. I am proud to say, I do, I do love her! And I wish I could proclaim we first met in back in the fifth grade, but we did not, not until much later in our adult lives. Still I am blessed by being her husband.
We are all to love each other just as Jesus said in (John 15:12) “Love each other as I have loved you.” Do we have to know each other to love each other? NO! In fact, I seem to remember a saying that declares “Love knows no stranger.” We should never look upon a stranger with dislike or disregard for we are all of the family of God; brothers and sisters in Christ. The world (Satan) has taught us to hate and despise each other, to be suspicious of each other. I think it a terrible shame, but true (sigh.)
What is love? God instructed the apostle Paul to speak of love in (1 Corinthians 13:1) saying, “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” In verses (4-7) of the same chapter we read; “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.”
Who do you love? Why not go and tell them…it will please God, and it will bless you.
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