LOVE MADE ME DO IT

Valentine’s Day is a special day to celebrate the people we love. In elementary school, Valentine’s was awesome! Mom would take you to Walgreens to buy some cool cards with your favorite TV show or movie on it. You could give your crush the coolest card and and it was totally fine cause everyone else was doing it, too. We had the whole day to pretty much tell each other how great we are, eat sugar cookies and drink Hawaiian punch. Those simple days you know? But as we get older, I’m inclined to think our view of what love is and really means gets tainted or distorted to some degree. 

The Ancient Greek language has 4 different words for LOVE: Agape, Phileo, Eros, and Storge.

• Agape - is the God kind of love, it’s covenant, unconditional.
• Phileo - is like brotherly love, think of Philadelphia (city of brotherly love) 
• Storge - parental type of love, I think of a stork, idk that’s just what my brain registers
• Eros - like erotic, sexual type of love #getaroom

Than of course is  Dr. Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages: Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gifts, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch.

• Quality Time - being with someone and actually investing in them, not being on Facebook or Insta the whole time your together
• Acts of Service - doing something for someone (especially if they don’t even have to ask you to) ex: wash my dishes
• Gifts - thoughtful tokens of your appreciation such as flowers, shoes (hint, hint), fav. candy, etc.
• Words of Affirmation - my love language, just tell me how great I am and how much you love me. no backhanded compliments either.. you're cool BUT .. 
• Physical Touch - most guys top 2 love languages, touch me and touch me again. 

But what is love? (Insert head bop, baby don’t hurt me)

John 3:16 maybe you’ve heard of it, it’s on a few bumper stickers and some football players wear it on their face and stuff, it says God SO loves. He doesn’t just do love or have love. He IS love. The Bible says God SO loved us that He put on skin and bones, fully God and fully man, lived, died and rose again so we could have relationship with Him. Here’s some thoughts:

GOD IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE: 
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. - 1 John 4:7-8

I think we make it way too complicated. Following Jesus is not a knowledge contest, or keeping a set of moral obligations and religious duties. One of my favorite preachers Carl Lentz in his message “Occupy All Streets” says, “Who you are is not defined by what you do. Who you are is defined by who Jesus is to you.” And I think a fair indicator of who Jesus is to you and revealed in how well you love people. 613 Old Testament Laws were condensed into love God & love people.


GOD MODELS LOVE: 
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

Jesus + Nothing = Everything
You want a better marriage, look to Jesus. You want to know what to do with your life, look to Jesus. You need health in your body, look to Jesus. In Him and through Him we live and move and have our being (cc. Acts 17:28). There is nothing we walk through that Jesus Himself has not endured; death, betrayal, you name it. 

28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matt. 11:28-30 MSG

Jesus invites us to dance in the unforced rhythms of grace. Breathing in His grace & breathing out His praise. Walk with me, work with me, watch how I do it. 

GOD COMMANDS LOVE:
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

You remember Peter’s story in the Bible? He walked, talked, did life with Jesus. Peter told Jesus I will never deny you! I’m your boy, ride or die I got your back. Jesus said, Petey hate to break it to you, but before the rooster crows 3 times, you’re denying me brother. 
Cock-a-doodle-do. #dang 

Than later on in John 21, Peter goes back to his old ways of doing things. He tried the whole following Jesus thing, figured maybe it wasn’t for him, maybe he wasn’t cut out for it. He’s on his boat fishing, and Jesus appears to him on the shore making breakfast. Peter jumps out the boat, runs to Jesus. Jesus asks him 3x, (after Peter denied him 3x), Peter, do you love me? Peter says, yes you know I do. The first two times, Peter said I PHILEO you (brotherly love), I PHILEO you (brotherly love) and than the last time he said I AGAPE you (unconditional love). In Scripture the number three represents that which is solid, real, substantial, and something in its completeness.  Jesus was restoring Peter, letting him know His grace was sufficient for his weakness. After every time he asked Peter, he followed it by saying, than feed my sheep, which is to say, than love my people. 

20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. - 1 John 4:20-21 MSG

The Bible says taste & see that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8). Here’s a thought, what they’re tasting is your fruit BELIEVER. What’s your flavor? The mandate is clear, loving God, includes loving people. You love others best when you love God most. 

love well,

Rachel