When ever you thing of love and a Bible verse you always think of 1 Corinthians 13. “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.” 

If I had to summarize what love is, I would say love is sacrificial dying to self. I think the biggest problem with many peoples understanding of love is that they think it is a feeling. That is how they “fall out of love”. But Love is a verb, it’s an action, it’s something you do.

God has shown his love for us (sacrificial dying to self love – verb) when He sent Himself, Jesus Christ, to be the very demonstration of love (agape) in dying for sinners. So self-denial love starts at the cross: at salvation we deny our own person and confess our utter inability to do any good. Christ’s blood atones for our sin and we are reborn. 1 John 4:19 says “We love because he first loved us.” We can love the unlovely because Christ loved us while we hated him. We can love our children as they lie to us, our spouses when they are rude to us, our coworkers when they use us, our friends when they disappoint us, our family when they insist on their own way BECAUSE love is a choice. When we love we choose to forgive, be patient and kind, not rude in return, not insist on our own way, not hold on to grudges, or rejoice when they get what’s coming to them, but we bear all things, endure all things. Love never fails.

This painting is a reminder to love…but not in squishy wishy washy feelings way. This is a reminder to love like Christ loved, by giving of our selves in a sacrificial servants heart way.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:2-3