"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; itdoes not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
- 1st Corinthians 13:4-8
Have you ever wondered why Paul characterizes Love as a person who acts in this verse?
"For the one who does not love, does not know God, for God is Love."
- 1st John 4:8
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Boiled down, this is God, this is Christ. The entire world comes down to a story of God, His-Story for us. What is it a story of? Love. History is a story of God's love for man and for Himself.
"In the beginning was the word... who was with God."
- John 1:1
God was love from the beginning, and in that beginning, and before the beginning God was Love. But if Love acts, it must have a subject, so before the beginning God loved within Himself. He was (and still is) Trinatarian God of Love. In the beginning was the earth, and God planted a garden on that earth, and took dirt into his hands to form a man, and then breathed His very essence, His breath, His life,His Love into that man. God created us, as beings of love, so that He could expand that fellowship of love.
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Many, many times do the apostles tell us to do one thing, and that it to love one another.
As Christians we are called to love, but as Christians Christ is simply reforming us back into what we were meant to be before the fall. So From the beginning we were called to love.
After man sinned God put into enactment a plan that would rescue us. This was a plan that was patient through all mistakes, was kind, did not promote itself, was not self seeking, would not be provoked to anger, would erase all record of wrongs, would rejoice in righteousness and truth, would bear the sins of the world, and yet would hope and endure through every trial.
That was the plan of salvation... that is a plan of 1st Chorinthians love.
You see God IS LOVE... All that he does is out of love.
He created us out of Love; He Redeemed us out of Love; He loves us now, because HE IS LOVE; and all he asks from us is Love... That is our God, that is Love.
Some how, Love is more than an emotion. I have come to believe that it goes a whole lot deeper, that in some unfathomable way it is the foundation of the world, it is what holds together the universe and is the fundamental nature of God.
The Bible says God is love, it then describes love, and yet, if God is love, and the Scriptures are the Word of God, then all scriptures are love. We can also say that if the universe is created by God, if we were created by God, if our lives are directed by God, and if God's nature is love, and he cannot act outside of His nature, then all of this is out of Love.
This is a world Birthed of Love...
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With out love then, there would be nothing... Love is the God we serve, and with out Love there would be nothing/0/zero! No creation, communication, freedom, reconciliation, knowledge. NOTHING
Love is big. Love is everything we ought to strive for as Christians. Love, not violence, can bring the world to a better place. Love, not logic, will fix our problems. Love brings health. Love brought Jesus to us, and us to Him. Only Love will do anything.
So, love.
1 John 4:7-21 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 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. 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. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. 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. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also."
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Worship Song:
"Arms Wide Open",
by Misty Edwards
"Arms Wide Open",
by Misty Edwards
Written by Kathryn Traw
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