Love in Action

Post date: Feb 1, 2018 1:34:28 PM

In our Deeply Rooted EnterMission we took an in-depth look and had an interactive discussion about Love. Starting at a 30,000 foot level we identified that there are four types of love discussed in God’s Word:

  1. Passion and intensity of feeling: Love based on physical appearance.

  2. Phileo: Brotherly love—common interests or bonds when you phileo-love someone, it’s a relationship where you give to receive.

  3. Storge: Family love and the physical show of affection, the need for physical touch. Sometimes it's the love between exceptional friends.

  4. Agape: Unconditional love—loving someone with NO conditions (no matter what).

Dropping down to about 5,000 feet we could see the treetops a little closer. In I Corinthians 13:3-7, it’s apparent that Paul is not trying to define love but rather put them into categories which we identified as:

  1. Pro-active

  2. Humble

  3. Enduring

These three categories help us to understand what love looks like in action. Our category of Enduring parallels what Jesus went through from his persecution and beating to his dying on the cross. These are not gentle words but more like tough love. Loving is sometimes not an easy thing to continue to do. Love endures in these ways:

  • LOVE BEARS ALL THINGS: Love is a Covering. It covers other’s faults, doesn’t gossip about them; puts up with anything. Love never gives up!

  • LOVE Believes all things: Love is trusting and gives a new start to those who’d sinned in the past; trusts God . . . always! Never loses faith!

  • LOVE HOPES ALL THINGS: Love hopes for the best for people rather than the worst; always looks for the best. Always hopeful.

  • LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS: Love is loyal—marriage till death; through persecution; never gives up; never looks back. Endures through every circumstance! And love doesn’t manipulate and control others to get its own way; but keeps going to the end.

And then the rubber met the road with our “Love Test”. Many of you have commented via e-mails and visits on the process we went through in scoring your own love condition asking how to get started on where you had fallen short on loving others. So, I have a suggestion for your consideration . . . If you could not attend EnterMission this week take the test, below you’ll find the template we used to help us identify where we stand in loving others. Take a few minutes to score yourself in each of the fifteen areas:

1 = Needs work

2 = I’m working on that

3 = I’m good to go.

Review your test results and identify the three areas that received the lowest score. Write a short comment on what you’re going to do to improve in that area to get a higher score value. I’d love to hear your results.

The Nicodemus video, WOW! Nicodemus taught us that it’s not about our religion, or our rules, or our position in life or work. It’s about how much God loves us. God will move heaven and earth to prove that He loves you. And wants you to love others that same way.

John 3:16 - Because God loves you so much, He sent Jesus . . .