LEARNING TO LOVEWhen I first started out in construction, I was a floor covering installer. I had learned this skill from my dad growing up and I became very good at it. But I was not satisfied. I was bored! So, I decided to branch out and become a General Contractor (GC) who would build …
LEARNING TO LOVE
When I first started out in construction, I was a floor covering installer. I had learned this skill from my dad growing up and I became very good at it. But I was not satisfied. I was bored! So, I decided to branch out and become a General Contractor (GC) who would build or remodel homes from the ground up. My first job was to frame up a new house -where do I start? I read a book called FRAMING BASICS, and I knew I still wasn’t ready to build this house on my own. I had a great idea. I hired one of the most well-respected GC’s to frame this house for me. I agreed to pay him full price with the added responsibility of teaching me along the way! In essence, I worked for free. But boy did I learn! I did this with every facet of construction until I was a good GC in my own right.
This type of learning is valuable in our spiritual lives as well – to study the truth we want to learn, to look at examples who have modelled the truth we are learning about, and then to put into practice what we have learned. Allow me to illustrate with the importance of Love!
In His Word, God has commanded us to Love Him and to love one-another. The greatest command is to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. But how can we do something so grand? We next need a definition of love.
God defined Love for us in His word. One of the greatest passages on this is found in 1 Corinthians 13.
“Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous of another’s success, love is not arrogant or self-centered, love rejoices in truth.”
We quickly learn that love is not just an emotion or a feeling. It is about choices we must make on a consistent basis. Wouldn’t it be great if we had someone to model it for us like my friend did for me in framing up a house?
God did indeed model love for us. God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us! He showed us that we should not wait until the other person is worthy of our love before we love them. Elsewhere, we see that God so loved the world (personalize this with your name) that He gave His only Son. We learn and see that love is sacrificial. Love places the other person’s interest above our own. (God placed my interest/your interest above His).
The challenge now is, ‘Am I willing to Love God the way He has loved me?’ ‘Am I willing to lay aside my rights as He did when He demonstrated His love for me?’ Friends, never forget we cannot love God unless we are loving our brothers and sisters as well. So, I also need to ask myself the question, ‘Am I willing to put the needs of others before my own needs?’
May we LEARN TO LOVE! Love is the glue that holds the Body of Christ together. (Col. 3:14)
