True Love

TRUE LOVE

 

In the daily devotional in ODB today Oct. 31, 2014, the author Bill Crowder called it "What Love Is", and he used a line that caught my attention "Real love has a lot to do with sacrifice". This word "love" in our English language can be used in a number of different ways with completely different meanings. For example we might say "I love pizza", or "I love my dog or cat", or "I love my new car", or we can say "I love God". This one little word can be used for all these different examples, but we are limited to this one word. The Greek language that most of our NT scriptures were written in had several different words for "love", for example [Agape] and [Eros]. These two words in Greek were both translated into English as love, although their meaning is quite different. Agape is used in (1 John 4:7-8) where we read "God is Agape". Every time John uses love in these verses the Greek word was always Agape.

 

The best example of "Self sacrificing" love is what we see in (John 3:16-17) or in (Rom 5:8) where our Creator God loved us so much that He allowed His own Son Jesus to become "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"  (John 1:29). This is the type of love that we as followers of Jesus should be continually showing towards the other members of the "Body of Christ". If the world around us saw more of this type of "self sacrificing love" operating in our churches, I'm sure they would be more interested in knowing more about the Good News of the "Gospel of The Kingdom of God" that we are to represent! As part of the true Church that Jesus said He would build (Matt 16:18), we who are followers of Jesus and part of this true Church, often referred to as the "Body of Christ" have our work cut out for us.

 

How do you suppose we could improve our witness to the world around us, to show them more clearly the change of heart that happens to us when we are "born again" and become a child of our Father? I think we need to give this some serious thought, and do as Peter commands us in (1 Peter 3:15) in the NLT version "Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it". That doesn't sound too difficult does it? The main thing is to be showing sacrificial love to others in the Body of Christ that will cause others to notice, and ask you the question "why are you doing that"? Then tell them!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                                                   31.10/14