Shouldn’t we understand the meaning of love in order to love?  There have probably been more songs written about the subject of love than any other topic.  Entire libraries and art galleries have been filled with inspiring works about love.  But what is love anyway?

Jesus left us with this parting message during the Last Supper:

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

 ~ John 13:34-35 (NIV)

The greatest definition of love that satisfies my heart and fulfills the entire law of God Almighty was written by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth. Corinth was a corrupt city whose system and culture was driven with idolatry and immorality.  Believers at Corinth were struggling with divisions, as some were falling prey to the influences of their environment – trying to blend their newly found faith in Jesus with the old traditions of “enlightenment” (what is right is wrong and vice versa).  Other church members at Corinth were feeling the crunch of living for God in heathen surroundings.  The spiritual warfare must have been intense!

Doesn’t that resemble the church today?  But Paul was inspired by God to reach out to them with this treasured poetic teaching on God’s perfect love that has stood the test of time:

^1”If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love,

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries

and all knowledge, And if I have a faith that can move mountains,

but do not have love, I am nothing.

³If I give all I possess to the poor

and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy;

It does not boast, it is not proud.

⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth.

⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease;

where there are tongues, they will be stilled;

where there are is knowledge, it will pass away.

⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

¹¹When I was a child, I thought like a child,

I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,

I put the ways of childhood behind me.

¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;

then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;

then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain:

faith, hope, and love,

But the greatest of these is love.” ~ I Cor. 13 (NIV)

I wish this scripture on love would be broadcast on the news channels, social media, and printed in every newspaper every day.  I wish that it would be the highest ranking bit of propaganda ever spread throughout the nations; because true love really is world-changing.

That’s what love is – world-changing!

 

Another thought: When our time on earth is done, will we be remembered for having a heart poured out in true love?

God bless and thank you for following ImportantStuff.live.