Real Love

Intro:  Let's look at what God has to say from His Holy word about the subject of real love. It has lost its meaning in this world.

I. What is real love and where does it come from? Love is used so loosely in our society today that it has lost it's real meaning. A couple declares their love for each other and then at the first hint of trouble, they divorce. Churches split over the slightest disagreement. Nation fights against nation for power and control. The bible tells us where real love comes from. There is no real love apart from God, love began with Him because He is love. 1 John 4:16b God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Example of what God's real love does! [John 3:16] God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [1 John 4:10 ] ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Here God’s actions defines the pattern of true love, the basis for all love relationships. When you love someone, you are willing to sacrifice dearly for that person. Real Sacrificial love is also practical in seeking ways to meet the needs of those who are loved. Real love is never about you, but how you can express that love to others.

II. Real love fulfills all the law. [Matthew 22:35-40] ³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" ³⁷ Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."                                                                                  III. We are to love one another. [John 13:34-35] ³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. a. Real love obeys Christ's commands. John 14:15 (NKJV) "If you love Me, keep My commandments. John 15:9-10 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.                 b. Characteristics of real love in action. 1 Corinthians 13:3-7 (NKJV) ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. ⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.                                          IV. God's love for us is eternal. Romans 8:35-39 (NKJV) ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." ³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These scriptures help seal our assurance in God's love. Paul lists several situations we might think could come between us and God. Paul knew from experience that these could not separate believers from God because he had already experienced them. This means that the love of Christ doesn’t separate us from these experiences, but even in the most devastating of these, the love of Christ is with us. Nothing can separate us from God's love for us which is in Christ Jesus or Lord.

Conclusion: The bible says in Romans 5:5 “The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” We are to allow His love to flow from us into the lives of those we come in contact with each day. If we do, people's lives will be changed for the glory of God the Father.

Invitation: Have you experienced God's love for you in the forgiveness of your sins? God sent His only begotten Son into this world for that very purpose. If you have not taken advantage of God's loving forgiveness, confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life to save you and live in you. Be baptized as a witness of your faith in Him.