No Greater Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Did you ever tell anyone you loved them? What did you mean when you said "I love you?" There are many connotations that go with the word, "I love you." There are at times misunderstandings will come with the words I love you. Lust and love are the exact opposite of each other yet many times are interchanged with each other. Lust brings self gratification where love causes us to deny ourselves for someone else. I have found that love is indeed a  "many splendid thing."

Webster tells us love is: to hold dear, cherish, to feel a devotion or tenderness for, caress, take pleasure in, to feel affection for as well as several other descriptions.

There are several kinds of love. We have one kind of love for our children, another for our mates, another for other family members while another for close friends.

There is a physical attraction we call love and I have discovered that there is a spiritual love we develop for our brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a deep tender love that grows as we work, worship and fellowship together.

The Bible has a lot to say about love. Leviticus 19:18 tells us love our neighbor as ourselves. What kind of world would we have to live in if we did as God's word teaches? Being thoughtful of others and showing consideration for their feelings would go very far.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shall  love the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in your heart; and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sites in your house, and when thou walk  by the way, and when thou lies down, and when thou rises up.

Jeremiah 31:3 tells us: The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.

The Greek's had five words to describe the word love while the English language had only one.

Eros, romantic, Storge, sense of belonging to one another, Phileo unique closeness of friendship, Phileo is the love we have for our siblings, a tender affection for one another. Epithumia, love making between a man and his wife, to fulfill the needs of the flesh. This is a gift from God and should be treated as such.

Of all the depth of love there is one love name reserved for God's love for us. Agape is an unending, undying love that only God can have in its fullness, however we should have some Agape love for our mate and children..

If you need proof of His love and forgiveness, you only need to look to Calvary. Here we find what Jesus said in John 15:13, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Do you know you have someone to love you or do you feel as though there is no one who cares?

Begin with God's love and you will find a new world open to you and in this new relationship with Christ Jesus, there will be many people that will love you and you can learn to love others.