Ecclesiastes 3:8 A time to Love…
I think the word love is the most misused word in our society. Often, we mistake our feelings for love. Love is truly a choice that we make. Here is the definition of love in the Webster’s dictionary.
Love: (noun) a strong feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, such as for a parent, child, friend, or pet:
Love: (verb) to have a warm personal attachment to or deep affection for:
Those definitions truly miss the meaning of love. According to the Bible, love is an action, not an emotion.
1st Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Here the word charity is being used for love. Love is patient, kind, not jealous, does not speak badly of, and not prideful. Those all require some sort of action. Sure, you can put an emotional stimulus to them, but the emotion does not dictate the act of love. In Ecclesiastes, the author tells us there is a time for love, which means we have a choice whether to love or not. The Bible encompasses the meaning of love. Love requires something from you. We can say the phrase "I love you” til you are blue, but if there is no action behind it, it simply is just words.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God Himself sets the tone of what it means to give when you love. Do we give of ourselves to the ones we love, or do we just use empty words and emotionally "feel good”. So now the big question is when is it a time to love?
Matthew 22: (37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
So first we can say it is time to love God! Pretty simple. I think we can all say we are going to fall short, once again we will say yes, I love God, but then where do we see giving of ourselves to and for God. Earlier we used the word charity for Love. Charity is the act of giving generously. Pause for a moment and let’s ask ourselves am I giving to God? I’m not just talking money, but what about your time? Time is the most precious commodity, for it can never be replaced. Are we giving our time to Godly things? Are we being obedient to the path God wants us to be on? I had a conversation a while back with someone and we were talking about God and our Christian faith. This person stated how much they believed in God and everything, and I asked them how much time they spent reading the Bible, just in casual conversation. Their response was that they really did not have time to read the Bible, and that does not affect their love for God. I did not say anything in response to that, for I have had that attitude myself in the past. My conviction was, why would you not spend time on or with something or someone you say you love? When we look at the divorce rate in America, we can see many of the reasons for divorce go back to the lack of what is in 1st Corinthians 13:4. We are marrying now a days for the emotional value in relationships and not the action value. As soon as the emotion changes, so does the status of our relationship. We are using our eyes to dictate what love is.
The 2nd time to love is to love our neighbor as ourselves. I have seen so many videos about how neighbors treat each other, and I always wondered how much strife these people live with on an everyday basis. No joy, always bickering. I guess at times it can’t be helped with the way we are in today’s society. We do not have the charitable, loving attitude we should have with each other. After all, it is commanded in Matthew 22:39. I recently had a new neighbor buy the property across the street from me, and they are nice people, but want to barter everything. He came over needing to see if he could use my lawn more and I said sure. He asked me how much I would charge him, and I said "nothing, be more than happy to help you out”. He refused to allow me to let him use my mower for free and insisted me to give him a price. I will be honest, I felt very uncomfortable to make my neighbor pay for anything in time of need. This was supposed to be a time for me to show love and it was being robbed of me. A long story short, we agreed on a payment and went about our day. Having said that, love was shown by my actions. We can find so many instances when we will have the opportunity to show love. There is a time to love.
1st Corinthians 13: (1) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. (2) And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. (3)And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
I wanted to finish up here and go back to the 1st verses in 1st Corinthians 13. Even though love is an action, if we do not do it in the right mind, it does not mean anything. Once again, we are not dealing in the emotional state, but being in the right mind. Often, we are doing these acts of love and are expecting a return. Just as I stated the story about my neighbor, I was not expecting anything for being loving. But I can say my mind was in the right place.
The Bible is full of examples of when it is time to show love. We must do our part to make time to love God, and to Love our neighbors.
COMMENTS
[ posted by Mike, 09/10/2024 11:48 AM ]
I am gonna go this week to about loving God. Why we should
love our God and what His love has done for us. It is definitely the time for
people and American to start a time to love God again.
I agree with you Mike, that today love is used loosely and
without much meaning as it should. It does seem to be used more as a
convenience thing. Without much meaning, commitment or action involved. We have
all been "in love." How many times did we think someone was "the
one" for us? How many times did we tell someone we loved them? So, what
happened to those relationships? What went wrong?
Love is not a feeling, it's an action. Love is a self
sacrificing act. The real core of love is selflessness: it helps, it heals, it
saves, it rescues, it doesn't quit or give up.
Rom 13:8--10 (8) Owe no man any thing, but to love one
another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
(9) For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not
kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not
covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in
this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (10) Love worketh
no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Notice the " fullfilled the law" and
"fulfilling of the law" ???
Who's law? God's law!
I am gonna interpret 'neighbor' as all people, not just who
lives next door. Because otherwise, do you have to love the folks on the other
side of town? Or in another state? Or another country?
1 John 4:8 -12 (8) He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
(9) In this was manifested the love of God towards us,
because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him. (10) Herein, is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us,
and sent his son to be the propitiation (atonement) for our sins. (11) Beloved,
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (12) No man hath seen
God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us.
Can you imagine if God just quit on us when we sin? Quit on
us because we forgot about Him during periods of our lives that got too hectic,
too busy or just too plain lazy for Him?
Let's go back to " the law" I mentioned above.
In Matthew 22:36, one of the Pharisee asks Jesus 'which is
the greatest commandment' of the law? (The law of Moses we are talking about,
the Ten Commandments given to Moses from God, for the Israelites).
Matt 22: (37-40) Jesus says " Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38)
This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (40) on these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets.
So, why does God want us to love others as we love Him and
ourselves?
Because when we fill ourselves with God's love and His words
for us, it is easier to be the type of person and Christians we were intended
to be. We show more grace and mercy and kindness. We can love others when we
love and are filled with God's love for us. Even when we are hurt or done wrong
by others. Ever notice where there is love and peace among us, everyone is
happy?
John 13: 34-35 A new commandment I give into you, That ye
love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love for one another.
Jesus didn't say hey, wear this t-shirt or bracelet with a
crown or cross on it so folks know you are my follower. LoL He says when we
show love for others, they will see and know we are different. Love makes the
difference in people and their behaviors.
So if we start with love, we are following God's law. Jesus
obviously knew how important love was, especially as the priority virtue in the
life of a Christ follower. If we don't apply God's law of loving one another
first, then it skews our thoughts and actions that we react quickly to before
thinking and responding through that "filter of love", so to speak.
The WWJD thing that went viral years ago, "What Would Jesus Do?" was
about how we respond in our actions in life....taking a moment and look at
things thru Jesus' point of view before reacting or responding to. It surely
makes you wonder how many things we may have said or done differently in the
past using that motto? Can I get a witness??? Any hands up out there?????
Anyone in the back row????
[ posted by Mike, 09/10/2024 11:53 AM ]
So if we don't act in love with the virtues of Jesus, then
it is pointless.
Martin Luther King said "it is our responsibility as
Christians to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to
live it out in our daily lives."
If we don't love God, we can not love ourselves. If we do
not love ourselves, we can not love another person.
God is love. 1 John 4:16 "And we have known and
believed the love that God hath for us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and God in him."
If we truly have God in our heart, we will love others the
way it is intended. We may not have to like what they do... but we need to love
others the way God loves us, being the sinners they and we are.
Every day God pours out his love, mercy and grace for us, a
bunch of sinners. He never gives up on us. Ever.
John 14: 15 If ye love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And those last two verses lead me into why we should love
God. A time to love, our God.
Mike quoted John 3:16. We all know it.
That is God's love for us. Whew. And we will never be able
to love like that. We will never be able to love like Jesus loved us. He came
to this earth knowing He was going to die horribly for us. Wanna talk about
laying down your life for someone? Jesus did that for us. We were doomed for an
eternity of damnation. Our God, sacrificed His son for us, bled for us, to wipe
away our sins. Laid down His life for all of us. No hesitation, no second
thoughts. That's how much God and Jesus love us! Why don't we love them the
same way?
Granted, we can't love like they do, but we should sure try
to be the best at using Godly love towards each other. Our world would be a
better place with more selfless love in it. More love like God's love. We sure
don't deserve the love God has for us.
Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea , I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving
kindness have I drawn thee.
Psalm 116: 13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call
upon the Lord.
God's Son was sent for our salvation because He loved us so
much. If we keep God's words and promises in our mind and thoughts, we will
more easily be able to show and live God's love for those around us. Love God
first, love ourselves as God loves us, and then we can love others the way God
commands us to.
Read 1 John 4: 7-21 for more verses of "love as Christ
loved."
Now is a time to love. ❤️