while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
We've sliced and diced love in all directions, attaching this condition or that label to it, confusing it with the baser passions of mankind, or the rigidity of our personally-defined perfection. When we say, "I love you", there is usually an unspoken "..." at the end. That little "..." means "when", "if" or "because". We love someone WHEN he (she) ___________________. We love someone IF he (she) __________________. We love someone BECAUSE he (she) __________________. The conditions, ("when" and "if"), or reasons ("because"), run the gamut of human emotion/experience. Yet here's the same lesson for you that I had to learn: (1) Love is NEVER a test; (2) Love is NOT "when", "if" or "because"--most of the time it's IN SPITE OF!
Now why do you suppose we have such a problem understanding love? It's because for FAR too long, we have accepted the world's definition of love. Let me tell you, and it's the truth, there is ONLY ONE source for genuine LOVE, and that is from God. That's the love that NEVER fails. That's the love that keeps on loving when someone disappointments us! That love doesn't "write someone off" when they don't live up to our expectations.
However, so MANY have a misconception of God is love. In GROSS ERROR they think love is "permission" to do wrong and get by with it. It is NOT! Hebrews 12:6-8 tells us, For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
The NIV puts it like this: "Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons." Christian or not, the lack of discipline (guidance, training, correction) in a person's life will NOT prepare them to live peaceably with others no more than will abuse or harshness (under the guise of discipline)!
That's the kind of love Jesus Christ had for you and me, did you know that? While we were out having what we thought was a "good time" in the world, with nary a thought of His love towards us, He already had a plan in place for our redemption from sin. We were included in that marvelous Whosoever: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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. John 3:15,16.
"A loving person is patient; is kind; is not jealous; is not boastful; is not proud; is not rude; is not interested only in himself; is even-tempered; does not hold grudges; is not happy when someone else does wrong; is happy when truth wins; never quits; always trusts; always hopes ; always keeps on going. Love lasts forever." (Simple English Bible).Several years ago, a drunk plowed into the rear and side of my car, as my husband turned onto our street. I watched as the police handcuffed him when he failed all their sobriety tests. About a month later, his apartment caught on fire. He was badly burned on one arm (he lived just up the street from us). Several weeks later, he came in the store where I worked. I asked how he was doing, told him I was sorry his home had burned, did he need any furniture? He wanted to know how I knew. I told him the truth--that it was my car he had hit and I had seen the ambulance take him away when his apartment had burned. He was hateful and made several mean remarks, but I noticed he began to "show up" in the store often. He always came through my line when I was working.
The last time I saw him, I was leaving work. He told me he was "going home" (to Australia) the next day. I asked if he would let me say something to him, and he consented. I told him about my own son, how he had once lived the same way, and what Jesus had done for him. I told him how wonderful it was to have my son restored to me and the hope we ALL have in Christ. I asked if I could please pray with him just a moment? He shook his head yes; when we parted, in my rearview mirror I saw him still standing there.
There was a lovely card waiting for me in the office the next morning. One of the other clerks said a tall thin man had purchased a card, borrowed her pen, signed and sealed it, then asked her to give it to me when I came back to work. Inside was printed, "Thanks"; at the bottom he had written, "I won't forget. Jon"
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for GOD IS LOVE. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein 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 ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? I John 4:7-12, 20.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, ESPECIALLY unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Colossians 3:12-14.
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