1
13
Love
| Bro Gaius Egwu (Ohafia, Nigeria)
W
hen we love and want to be loved, it
must not be as the world loves. We must,
as Christ did, learn to know the meaning of
‘Agape’ – that is the love which God has shown
us. “For God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.” (John 3:16).
The Son was hung on the cross because of
love, for it is the love God has for us that
caused Him to allow the Jews to kill Jesus.
(Romans 5:8). So you cannot say ‘I love
someone’, if he or she hurt you and you never
forgave or forgot the hurt.
We are going to look at seven points which are
contrary to love:-
| Corrupt words: when we allow our tongue
to rule our body (Eph. 4:29).
2| Grieving the Lord: when you see someone
who might wrong you, and immediately your
heart is hardened against them.
3| Bitterness: when you hear something good
happens to someone other than yourself, and
you feel hatred. (Eph. 4:31).
4| Wrath: A woman once told me that she
discovered her husband going with another
woman, and she decided to go out with other
men until he changed his behaviour. When you
cannot forget the past, that means you are
also sinning. (Eph. 4:31).
5| Anger: being easily provoked, annoyed and
lacking in self-control. (See 2 Tim. 3:3 and
Eph. 4:31).
6| Clamour: whenever you wish to speak to
your husband or wife, children or others, you
shout – a state of causing confusion both in the
Ecclesia and in the home.
7| Malice: a desire to harm someone because
you feel they have offended you and you must
hurt them in return.
In Matthew 5:44 it is recorded that Jesus says,
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, do good to those who hate you and pray
for those who spitefully use you and perse-
cute you.”
Let us see how God loves: He makes His sun
rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust. A man or
woman who needs shade can go under a tree
for shelter, but the tree never rejects the bad
ones: that is the love of God. He gave us His
Son Jesus Christ who always loves us and died
for the forgiveness of our sins.
We read in 1 Corinthians 13 the true meaning
of love:
“Though I speak with tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love,
I have become like sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift
of prophecy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have
faith, so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.
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. Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy; love does not parade
itself, is not puffed up; does not behave
rudely, does not seek its own, is not
provoked, thinks no evil. Does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in
the truth; bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are
prophecies, they will fail, whether there
are tongues, they will cease; whether
there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
(verse 13) And now abide faith, hope,
love – these three, but the
greatest of these is love.”