The Bible tells us that “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
—Matthew 22:34-40.
I believe a fundamental shared by all human beings…and nature itself…is to love and be loved. Love is a core characteristic of the Creator who created us to have fellowship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since we were made in his image, it is no surprise that we should want to share the love he created us to experience.
Unfortunately, we are all flawed in our attempts at or understanding of love. In our state of fallen humanity, we have lost the natural tendency to love and forgive. From birth, we pursue and demand OUR WAY. We love and belong mostly based on what others can give us. As babies, we demand to be fed, kept warm, held, and coddled. As kids, we learn to covet the toys or possessions of others or measure ourselves based on our things or accomplishments versus our love quotient. Most of us early on realize that affection is usually deserved based on something we did, how we appear, or if we make others laugh or feel good about themselves. Life seems better if we please other people and if we don’t, our cup of love and self-esteem gets stunted.
According to the scripture above, loving God comes first. The basics of how we do that are:
- Believe in Him
- Thankfulness for his gift of love via the gospel of salvation, forgiveness, and promise to be with us
- Praise Him for who He is in all His majesty
- Give back to Him from what He has given us
- Communicate with Him daily and let Him know your needs
- Plan our future with Him in the life everlasting. This is commitment
Once we have loving God down and understood, we can then begin to love and accept ourselves by:
- Believing in and forgiving ourselves as God does
- Being thankful for who God made us and accepting our abilities and limitations without question
- Be cautiously proud of our accomplishments while realizing that without God in our lives, nothing would be accomplished
- Graciously receive love and blessings from God and other people around us. It’s okay to revel in real love. It fills our cup…
- As we communicate within ourselves in our thoughts and spirit, stay positive and hopeful regarding our needs and our unknowns. It’s okay to pursue our needs
- As for the future, live each day as if it were your last, forget about the failures of yesterday (apart from lessons learned), and trust God for your tomorrows realizing that you will reap in your tomorrows what you sow today
Once we have a loving relationship with God and ourselves, we can begin to effectively love other people by:
- Believing in them even with all their faults or failings. Love starts with forgiveness and forgetting their shortcomings
- Demonstrate your thankfulness that they are in your life
- Share pride in their accomplishments and focus on their strengths, not their weaknesses
- Daily demonstrate your love for others in your life
- Communicate consistently that you will always be there for them to the extent of your ability
- Sow love and positivity TODAY, so that if they are gone tomorrow you have no regrets for your actions or lack of them
As we can see…the methods or actions of love are similar whether it be towards God, ourselves, or others. Without faith in God, ourselves, or others, it is impossible to love effectively. We cannot out love God but with his power of love in our lives, we can love ourselves and others unconditionally. We will not be reliant on others to love us…but I would suggest there is truth in the natural order that love begets love while hate begets hate.
Let us be full of love today and every day. Circumstances and the people around us change daily, but the love of God reaches everywhere and always based on our faith and trust in Him. We are to be like Him which means growing in the knowledge of faith of the one true God, knowing our mission (which is love), and leading others through love and compassion. Love is sacrificial in character. Judgment is God’s…not ours. Without love, it is impossible to please God.
I would suggest that true love is a verb, not a noun. It is an action, not lip service.
Whether it be our partners, families, friends, or distant strangers…the best call to real love can be found in I Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love