We all need to give and feel love. The truth is, love makes the world go round. It gives us security, peace and happiness. Love challenges us and gives us purpose. Love is unique to the human race. That’s how God designed it.
In the beginning, God created one man and one woman in his image to love each other. Genesis 1:27. God loved Adam and Eve so much, He gave them all of creation to rule over. He gave them every living plant for food and dominion over all the animals of the earth. Genesis 1:28-31.
According to scripture, when two people unite, they become one flesh. “and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.” Mark 10:8, Genesis 2:24. As a result of this union, this is why we feel so much sorrow and heartbreak when relationships breakdown. We weren’t designed to separate if the marriage is God-ordained. “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Mark 10:9.
The Bible helps us model how we should view love. One of my very favourite scriptures about love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
Love trumps all! Love is superior. The Bible teaches us there is nothing greater than love because God is love. 1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Jesus taught two important commandments about love which involve how we should love God and how we should love others. Matt 22:37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matt 22:39 “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” He taught that the commandment mentioned in Matt 22:37 is the highest.
How we treat others is a reflection of who we are. It tells a lot about our character as a person. Ephesians 4:32 is a good example of what our attitude should be towards people. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” And then there is also Romans 13:10 “Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Love is spoken about throughout scripture and the Bible gives us guidance of what love should look like in marriage. Husbands and Wives are given clear instructions regarding how they should love each other from the apostle Paul. Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Jesus gave himself up for us on the cross. He died for us so we should have eternal life, that is how much Jesus loved us. And now the apostle Paul is educating husbands they should love their wives just as much.
Ephesians 5:28 “ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.” Again Paul is referencing in this verse that husbands should love their wives just as much as Christ does the church. So husbands have the responsibility to ensure their wives are loved deeply. If husbands make it a priority to love their wives as Christ loved the church as Paul points out, then the marriage between husband and wife will be harmonious.
The apostle Peter has advice for wives and how they should love their husbands in 1 Peter 3:2. “when they see your modest and respectful behaviour [together with your devotion and appreciation—love your husband, encourage him, and enjoy him as a blessing from God].”
So both husbands and wives are to love each other. Love is mutual submission. Colossians 3:14 “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Scripture teaches us to show love above everything else because love is the glue that holds us together.
Although love is pure and holy and a divine creation from God. There is an adversary that wants to wipe out love and everything that love represents. The adversary’s name is Satan.
Satan is out in the world working on destroying marriages and anything that God has created which He has called good and lovely. 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Paul wrote to Timothy whilst in prison warning him of a loveless society in the last days. Timothy was Paul’s companion and friend in Christ. 2 Tim 3:2-2 “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control, brutal, haters of good” Satan is the driving force behind this corruption in the last days which we are seeing occur now. But God has overcome Satan. 1 John 4:4 “Little children (believers, dear ones), you are of God and you belong to Him and have [already] overcome them [the agents of the antichrist]; because He who is in you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world [of sinful mankind].”
God has given us His word to combat Satan and his schemes. If we are to stay filled with love we need to meditate on His word. Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
If we continue to love God and love others, we will be following in God’s obedience and keeping ourselves protected from the wiles of the enemy. 1 John 4:11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Faith Truth and Wisdom Ministries 