Godly Love

[squeak]

Love Defined (Examples)

[Luk 6:30
[30] "Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask [them] back.
[Luk 14:12
[12] Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.
[Jas 4:1-4, 6-10
[1] Where do wars and fights [come] from among you? Do [they] not [come] from your [desires for] pleasure that war in your members?
[2] You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
[3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.
[4] Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ...
[6] But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
[7] Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
[8] Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [you] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [you] double-minded.
[9] Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and [your] joy to gloom.
[10] Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
[Mat 5:37-48
[37] "But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
[38] "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
[39] "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
[40] "If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have [your] cloak also.
[41] "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
[42] "Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.
[43] "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
[44] "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
[45] "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
[46] "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
[47] "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more [than others]? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
[48] "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
[1Jo 2:3-5
[3] Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
[4] He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
[5] But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
[1Pe 2:17, 19, 21-23
[17] Honor all [people]. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. ...
[19] For this [is] commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. ...
[21] For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
[22] "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth";
[23] who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed [Himself] to Him who judges righteously;
[1Jo 2:15-17
[15] Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
[16] For all that [is] in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.
[17] And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
[1Pe 2:19-20
[19] For this [is] commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
[20] For what credit [is it] if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this [is] commendable before God.

xxx The love that God created is an action. To suffer wrongfully but do it willingly. If you deserve a punishment and you receive it with patience there is no love on your part. But if you dont deserve it and you take it patiently and you suffer wrongfully for it. That is love.
God has been loving us sense the world began. We deserve to die and go to hell. But God keeps trying to make ways that we can be saved. The devil is trying to convince everyone that coveting is love, coveting is an emotion. But just like the rest of the truth about God it takes an act of God to see the difference between coveting and suffering wrongfully.



[1Jo 3:18 NKJV] 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

 

[Tenchi]

The love that God created is an action.

Actually, godly love, agape love, expresses itself in action, but it isn't itself that action.

Think of it this way: If I see a car passing by me on a road and I observe exhaust coming out of the tailpipe of the car, I don't say, "Hey, there's the car's engine!" I wouldn't look at the motion of the vehicle and think, "That's the engine of the car," either. And it would be rather strange for me to hear the sound of the vehicle as it passes me by and turn to my wife and remark, "Hear that? That sound is itself the engine of the vehicle." No, the exhaust, motion and sound of the car are the manifestations of the engine, they aren't the engine itself. Pop the hood of the car and you could look right at the source of all the motion, noise and exhaust of the car and see it is none of these things, though it produces all of them.

In the same way, the actions of love are no more synonymous with love itself than the effects of a car engine are identical to the engine itself. Agape love is actually a Person: the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; Philippians 1:19), the Holy Spirit. He is the "engine" of agape love, so to speak, giving rise in Christians to loving action.

Romans 5:5
5 ...the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love...

When the Holy Spirit manifests, or expresses, himself in and through the life of a born-again believer, they act in agape-love ways - ways described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and 1 John 4:7-11.

At the core of agape love is deep, positive, over-riding DESIRE for God, to know Him, to commune with Him, and to walk in His ways. The Holy Spirit has this desire for Christ and God, the Father (and they, for him) in a perfect degree and imparts it to us.

Psalm 42:1-2
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 63:1
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Psalm 143:6-7
6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah
7 Answer me quickly, O LORD! ...

Philippians 3:7-9
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him...

This love is "ground zero" for all Christian living; without it, a believer's obedience to God is actually disobedience and rejected by God.

Matthew 22:36-38
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
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.
38 This is the great and first commandment.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

A deep, positive, over-riding desire for God, a desire that rejects and forsakes anything that will cool or hinder it, is given to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Only from him can be obtain this kind of love. But he can dwell in us and we can be quite cut-off from his love. How? By not walking constantly under His authority and control. When we migrate away from the control of the Holy Spirit, we become rebels toward him, toward God, and he will not fill rebels with all that he is, including his love.

So it is that Christians who ought to be filled to overflowing with God's love, are cold, and bitter, and hard instead. These same people still do "Christian" things: attend church, own a Bible and read it (sometimes), pray (over meals, at least), maybe even serve in the church in some way (usher, choir member, Sunday School teacher). Can they claim to love God, then? Absolutely not.

Be careful, therefore, not to assume that Christian action, so-called "loving" action, is agape love. It's not.

 

[miamited]

Hey squeak

A good definer of love.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not envy or boast. And love is never proud. Love does not dishonor others. Love is not self-seeking neither is love easily angered. Love does not delight in evil. But love does rejoice in the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Remember that God is love. He is the one who always protects, always trusts, always hopes and perseveres with us. He is our Lord and God. The Creator of all that exists. By His will were all things created and have their being. God is love and He desires to lavish that great love upon us.

 

[melbro]

John the baptist suggested "he who has two tunics give to him who has none, share your bread with the poor". Jesus repeated that. If our love is practical others benefit, ie cup of water to the thirsty child.

 

[follower]

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
[16] For all that [is] in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.

I did not see a definition, but this is truth, with all Scripture.