Now what?

Here I go again. And yes it's about love this time. Love is important for everyone, and essential for a follower of Christ.  A recurring theme in my walk with the Lord has been that as a believer, my life is to be others based.  Don't get me wrong, the word of God teaches to guard your heart as well as to care for others, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. . .to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood."(Acts 20:28).  What this means is that I need to make sure that I know how to love correctly. God's my example for how to love. After I know how to love, I can love another person correctly.  The point is, I do not necessarily have to love myself before I can love someone else, just that I have to allow God to teach me how to love before I can properly share that love.  I need to be filled up by the Lord before I try to pour out to others.  So if God is my example of love, and he does not tolerate sin, I need to be like-minded.  God does not tolerate sin because he knows what is best for us, and sin robs us of joy.  As followers of Christ, we are sometimes called to a tough love mentality.  We're not called to condemn others, for we are sinners, and are therefore are transgressors of the whole law.  However, we are called to walk in righteousness, "Among you there must not be even a hint of immorality, or any kind of impurity, because these are improper for God's holy people."  We can not love other people properly if we claim to be people of God and yet linger among impurity and immorality.  Right now God is calling me to walk in righteousness and gently reassuring my heart that He can and does love those in my life more than I ever could. God can love and woo people out of sin and into righteousness.  My job as a follower of Christ right now is to continue to walk in righteousness.  We all love someone. Stop and ask yourself, what your love is accomplishing for your soul, for the other person's soul, and for the kingdom of God. If nothing comes to mind, hand it over to the Lord.  He can love better than any human.  He can not be tempted, and he desires for his followers to flee darkness, deceit and temptation in order to be a light.

The meaning of love is lost among many unfortunate cliches. The whole English language is cheapened daily by our own ignorance and misuse of it.  And one of the most elemental words of all has lost its depth.  That word is "love". For me, the mention of it brings up a sickening feeling and thoughts of broken promises, annoyingly desperate teenagers, and most detestably-Valentine's Day.  It breaks my heart that something that was created by our Lord-such as love-has been degraded by society to the point that it has almost lost all significance.  Excuse my pun-but the heart of the matter lies in the fact that in English, there is only one word for love, and in Greek-the language the first testament was first written in-there are three different words for love, all varying slightly in meaning:

1)"Eros" is a sensual or physical love, such as a lust between young lovers or the selfish love a newborn baby has for her mother.  

2)"Phileo" is a love between friends, a co-dependent relationship love based on a giving and receiving.  3)"Agape" is a love based on the idea that something is WORTHY of praise and reverence.  It is a self-sacrificing love, where one party gives regardless of whether or not they will ever receive anything in return.  

In popular movies, songs, and even in daily society we see "eros" and  mistake it for the only way to love.   When we  focus only on what the world displays to us as love, we forget ,"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."(Romans 5:8).  That is true agape !  Jesus did not die on the cross because he was selfish, or because he wanted to get something from us, but because he loved us so much that he found us worthy of his adoration!  And when we find agape, eros and phileos are trash in comparison! Only the agape of our Lord provides peace, freedom, and wholeness.