LOVE series 2

THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE 

‘GOD is LOVE, and whoever lives in love lives IN UNION with GOD and GOD live IN UNION WITH him”

There are few points I would like to address:

FIRSTLY, I would kindly want to let you know that LOVE IS A COMMAND! Love is not a feeling, it is not something you reason out or consider. To truly love you can’t chose the people you are to love. Jesus Christ, the great teacher told his followers “Why should GOD reward you if you love ONLY those who love you? Love is a STERN COMMAND.

The man from Tarsus named Apostle Paul confirms this truism. He said “The only commandment that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love his brothers also”

In life there are two greatest commandment Jesus laid down for us. Love for God and Love for others. Jesus answered the Pharisees “The second most important commandment is like it :Love your neighbour as you love yourself” Jesus said again “My commandment is this: love one another just I have loved you” JOHN 15:12

If love were to be a feeling, JESUS would not have died for all of us! Why? Because we have all sinned against him and his Father. We neglected our first love. We grieved Him. But he still came to die for us. If JESUS would have had to follow his feeling he would not have ever thought of coming on earth let alone dying for us. Because Love was a command from his Father he accepted to pay a debt he did not owe, he decided to be tortured for the sins He did not commit.

1JOHN 3:16

16 This is how we know what LOVE IS: Christ GAVE his LIFE for US.

17.We too, then ought to give our lives for our brothers (neighbours)

SECONDLY, You can not truly love if you do not know GOD! Why did I make such a statement. Read on. Many people believe they can just love. Your cannot understand the depth of true love if your life is not rooted in God. Many of us think you can really understand what love by reading romantic and sensual novels, watching Diego and Paloma, reading books on realationships like ‘How to love your spouse’ or ‘Reationship 101’. Many spend hours attending conference and seminars here and there.  All this exercises are very crucial. But on what basis? Are they all inspired by God?

I have seen a drug addict tell a young lady ‘I love you’ and she just jump up!  and gave an echoing 'YES!' You can never separate love from GOD! Why? Because GOD IS LOVE and LOVE IS GOD.  Love can not be overtly defined. Defining love is like trying to describe the internet to an ant! Defining LOVE is like trying to tell me what GOD is! Can you describe the whole nature of God? No! One can only have a glimpse or know a part of what love is but you cannot know everything about love. No wonder Paul the Apostle said ‘Yes may you come to know His love-although it can NEVER be fully KNOWN- and so be completely filled with the very nature of GOD” Eph 3:19.

 When you say LOVE you say GOD and vice versa. How then can you say you love someone and you do not know the owner of LOVE? I will only give you something if I know you. I have discovered that 90% of every young person I have met actually have LUST thinking it is LOVE.

I have been in a gathering where young people were discussing love. A young man was delighted because he had just wooed a beautiful lady. He took a snap with her. To prove his point, he took out his blackberry phone and began to make a tour of all the pictures he had taken with her. I saw the pictures, she was really cute! People surrounded him as he was sliding the pictures on his phone. Many congratulated him for catching such a ‘big fish’

But I heard something that pissed me off! He said ‘do you know why I love this girl? I just love her smile!’ Nobody actually gave attention to him as they were carried away with her smiles, her shape and her fine complexion. But I was really perturbed. Because I love drawing lessons from everything that happen around me. I sat there and began to ask myself ‘So this guy loves nothing in this girl than her smile?’ ‘what if she loses her face and happen that she could’nt smile anymore what would be the fate of this relationship? I deduced my lessons and did something else. 

Love is more than what we can see. It is more than the smile on people's face.  It is a deep spiritual exercise. It transcends to the supernatural. You cannot really understand the true nature of love is you are not spiritual. We humans are spirit beings with a soul, living in a body. God do not communicate to us through our body, he communes with us through our spirits. Paul said ‘For as many as are led by the spirit of GOD they are the SONS of GOD” ROMANS 8:16

The Baptist, JOHN said “whoever does not LOVE does not know GOD, for GOD is love” 1JOHN 4:8 i.e you cannot really love if you don't know GOD because GOD is love and LOVE is GOD. JOHN went further to make it more lucid he reiterated:

1JOHN 4:12-13

12. No one has ever seen GOD, but if we love one another GOD LIVES IN UNION with us, and his love is made perfect in us.

13. We are sure that we live in UNION WITH GOD and that He lives in union with us, because he has given us HIS SPIRIT.

John added ‘GOD is LOVE, and whoever lives in love lives IN UNION with GOD and GOD live IN UNION WITH him”. So  one can never separate TRUE LOVE from GOD. Wherever TRUE LOVE is GOD is also there!


Thanks for reading this piece, kindly proceed to LOVE series 3
http://www.love-sessions.com/whatislove.htm (if you care to know more)

be INSPIRED!
CYPRIAN HENRY
08088733350