If your friend came up to you one day and asked you to help them with some kind of project that they were working on, would you help them? If they were truly your friend I think that you would almost certainly drop whatever you currently had going on to assist your friend in their need. Why? Because you love your friend. You care deeply for them and will put their needs before your own.
Love. If a feeling for someone or something is really love it will manifest itself through some kind of action towards them. It might be in the form of opening a door for someone whose arms are full, or helping someone who isn’t able to help themselves. Sometimes a person might be going through a very difficult time in their life and they need any help that they can to get by, and it is during a time such as that that person needs all the love that they can get.
1 John 3:14-18 says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
There are many different examples of love in the Bible, but we do not need to look any further than our Lord Jesus Christ to understand what love is.
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
That is exactly what Jesus did. He gave His life so that we could be saved. He saw our need for salvation, and filled it. He took the suffering upon Himself so that we wouldn’t have to. He took our heavy burdens, and made them light. He showed us how to love.
Jesus’ declaration of love for us was not just words, it was backed up by His deeds. People all the time say the words “I love you,” but do they really? Anyone can say those three words, but it is through an action that it is proven. John used the example of seeing a brother in need, saying, If you shut up your bowels of compassion, how can God’s love dwell inside of them? Are we not supposed to love others, just as Christ has loved us? Then prove it.
This was the question that Jesus asked Peter. Do you love me?
John 21:15-17 “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.”
Unlike some who only say the words, Peter’s life was a living example of his love for Jesus. His love for the Lord led him from city to city, preaching everywhere he went. When he was put into prison for preaching, upon his release Peter immediately went right back at it. When he was commanded to stop teaching in the name of Jesus, Peter answered, We ought to obey God rather than men. It was Jesus who had commanded him to preach, and there was no one who was going to tell him otherwise.
In one of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, he explained to them that while they might not have taken care of his needs when he was with them, the brethren from the church in Macedonia were filled with great love for him, and took care of whatever he was lacking. They saw his needs, and they filled it.
Love is so much more than the words. It is an action. Are you filled with the kind of action that shows others your love? Do you see someone in need, and will you show that person the love that is found in Christ?
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 