Table of Contents
What is Love?
In simple terms, love take joy in the recipient for the recipient’s sake alone. There are no strings attached, which means no hidden agendas. Love says and does what’s best for the recipient, even if he or she doesn’t like it. Pure love (AGAPE -God’s type of love) cannot be earned. It’s not based on the receiver’s performance.
Showing People Love
One phrase that seems often used lately is, “You’ve got show people you love them,” or “care about them.” What does that really mean? Putting on a show does not necessarily mean one actually cares about the other person. It may be more about appearance than reality. How many want others to feel loved, because they themselves don’t?
Some confuse all inclusivity with unconditional love. They are not necessarily the same. Embracing someone’s destructive lifestyle in order to be inclusive may actually cause more harm than good. Loving someone unconditionally does not mean you have to accept choices and decisions another makes, which you know full well are not in their best interest.
Is it love to celebrate something that will ultimately destroy or hurt someone. Disagreement does not equal rejection. Sure, some reject others because they don’t agree with them, but that’s not the point. Here’s the point: you can absolutely love someone, and still disagree with them.
Don’t equate disagreement with hatred. Some try to employ a narrative that says if you disagree with them, you hate them. It’s just another tactic used to push their agenda.
Love Always Includes Truth
Ephesians 4:14-24 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Let’s get real: numerous narratives are not based on truth. They hijacked the word, love, in order to manipulate others. Love is never void of truth, neither does it manipulate others.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to walk in the Truth, which means we speak the truth in love. By the way, venting and speaking the truth in love are not the same. As stated earlier, love always speaks truth in order to benefit the other. So yea, it’s important for us to think before we speak. More importantly, allow Holy Spirit to lead us in what we say.
First Love First
Revelation 2:4 But I have this against you, that you have left your First Love (see verses 1-7 for full context).
People have excluded godly principles in the name of love. In so doing, they have excluded Him. In essence, when a person denies God’s truth, is he or she denying Jesus?
If you don’t love God above all others, you will never love others well. How many choose not to stand on the Word of God because they are afraid of rejection? Doing and saying things based on that fear is not love; it’s self-preservation.
Consider this: who knows what’s best, humanity or God? Is it loving to exclude godly principles? How many forget there is an eternity, and how we handle truth and love greatly affects how we spend it? It is important to stay consistent with the things of God, if we are to truly love others well.
If you want to show people you love them, then just simply love them. Love does not require a spotlight!
