Do We Love as Christ Commands?

by Mihran Kulhanjian

 

Dear Friends,

Most people believe that love is an emotion, a feeling of good and wonder. People say they "fell in love" and then as the selfishness takes over they say "I fell out of in love."  "Oh, how I use to love you, and then I fell out of love with you."  Do we really fall in and fall out of love? Is this a real love?   Is this God's love or the way He commands us to love?  No, of course not. This emotion filled type of love is not a real love. It may appear real, but, it is a selfish, an immature, a pride filled expression of love that spurs romantic feelings and falls into lust and wanting something that fulfills a need, temporarily and sometimes longer term.  Lust is not love. Lust is a sin. But I won't get into all this here. Usually, this type of love is between a man and woman.  It is not the type of love God commands of us.  God commands a man to love his wife and commands a wife to submit (respect) her husband. Love your wife and wives love your husband as Christ loves the church. How does Jesus love the church?  Jesus loved the church to die for the church, His sheep. He also lives so His sheep will live.  Jesus said in John 15:12-13: 

 

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends."

           

Jesus commands us to love. This is His commandment to us not the commandments of the Old Testament.  He is not giving us a list of rules of what we should do or not do, He is giving us one commandment that covers all the commandments of the Old Testament; and that one commandment is to love as He loves. In this commandment Jesus is not telling us to love God, but to love one another. His two great commandments are to love God first with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, second, to love others as we love ourselves (Luke 10:27).  This is a love that cares for others and their wellbeing. This is a love that tells the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God to the lost. This is love that wants no harm to come to anyone. This is a love of action, a love of good works in the name of Christ.  We put others ahead of ourselves, we sacrifice ourselves for others. This is Christ's love, self-sacrifice. Jesus put others ahead of himself. One who lays down [sacrifices] one's life for another executes this love. However, the motive behind this love must be a pure heart. This type of love cannot occur outside of the Holy Spirit. A person must be born again.  Have you ever said "Please God, take me instead of him? Or I will die for this person to live?  If you ever said something to this effect and meant it, that you were truly willing to take the place of someone else in death, was your motive love for the person? If you did say this and meant it, I believe you have the love God wants us to have, to die for another, whether, a friend, sibling, father or mother. Anytime we are willing to die for another, motivated by a pure heart, we have the love God wants for us to have.

 

God's love is agape love. The word agape is an ancient Greek word. The word is a form or expression of a type of love, a type of charity. This kind of love is a love that a godly man [a born again child of God] has for God and God has for man, God's creation.  This is not a love of emotion, sexual attraction, sentimentality, brotherly love or a love of familiarity. Agape love is an unselfish love. It is a love that asks for nothing in return. It is a love that cares and protects. It is a love to help--to help all who need help.  This love is the love God has and wants us to have. It is a love of faithfulness, sacrifice and commitment; a love that wants to help others, and does, and wants always the best for others.  This love is actionable. God show His love for us through His actions, what He did for us. Likewise, we show our love with action.  We care for and protect the vulnerable in our world, the orphan and the widow, the poor and the oppressed. We put our love on them.

 

I believe we all have a desire to love and we all have a desire to be loved. I also believe many orphans and widows and others who are oppressed by the devil seek love desperately. And sadly, the unloved fill the void through other avenues:  illicit drugs, alcohol, fornication, work, food and etc. It doesn't have to be this way.

 

It is not difficult to love. It is a choice.  It can be a good choice, one endorsed by God, or a bad choice, fool's love [false love and selfishness desires] that is contrary to God's love for us. We love or we don't.  Unfortunately, many do not know how to love because in their family they have never seen love. There was never an expression of love between a child's parents, therefore, as the child matures, the teenager or young adult does not know how to express God's love, and through other modern sources (T.V., movies, internet, etc.) wrap love up with lust and selfish desires, instead of true, and pure desires of the heart. 

 

If you are unloved, I want you to know you are not unloved. God loves you very much and He wants the best for you. In fact, He has provided His great love for you.  His great love is Jesus Christ Himself. Did you love that God is all love? That Jesus is all sacrifice?  And the Holy Spirit is all wisdom and knowledge?  God is faithful in His promises to you. God also wants you to love Him. And although I do not know you, I may not know you personally, I love you, too.  Let's not forget that love is a choice. We put on love. Express your words with action. If you cannot speak to someone of your love, show your love with your actions. Show that you care. Send a letter or a card. Send a gift and say "I am thinking about you and I love you."  Make yourself available and express that you are important to them and that they are important to God.

 

The Apostle Paul expresses Christ's love:

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love

 

Love ought to be the first and greatest attribute of the believer.

 1 Corinthians 13:4
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

 

Galatians 5:22-24
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

Again, love is expressed as the first attribute of the Spirit.

1 John 4:16
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

 

The Apostle John, the one Christ loved, says "God is love." And if we abide [remain] in love, we abide in Christ and Christ abides in us.

 

We can show our love by praying for others. Jesus prayed for His disciplines and all believers in John 17:6-26:

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
 
9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
 
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
 
24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

The highest expression of love is intercession. Praying for others is love from the spirit; and it moves mountains, heals the sick and delivers the lost to salvation.

 

 The Psalmist said: "Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4). God will imprint on your heart His desires for you. Your desires and His desires will be the same. You will be in alignment with God, and His love will be your love. This love you will also have for others when you choose God and His will for your life.  God is love, so let us love the unloved, the orphan and the widow, the poor and the oppressed, and one another.

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