what is love?

"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind. And Love your neighbor as your self." Luke 10:27



This scripture has become one of my favorites! We've had many fights in this country about the 10 commandments, yet Jesus says this is the most important commandment. Love God and Love people! This basically sums up the gospel, doesn't it?


There is a verse in 1 Corinthians that says God is Love. I've asked several people "how do we love our neighbor?" I get all kinds of good answers. Serve them, invite them to church, tell them you care, fix them supper and many other good answers. They all great answers but they aren't the correct one.


The Bible says we are to "love our neighbor." So we first have to answer, what is love? The answer is simple, GOD! God is love. So we may do all kinds of nice things for our neighbor, but if we aren't showing them Jesus, then we aren't really loving them are we?


I want to put this in a specific context today. How are you living out your faith around your friends and your family? Are you showing them love (Jesus), or are you showing them something else?


So often we realize we are doing sinful things and our relationship with Christ is awful, but we don't give too much thought about how that affects our neighbor. How do your sins affect your friends? Are you saying to them, "I love you and want to show you Jesus", or are you helping them spend eternity in hell?


I'm at the age where I have started having regrets in my life. My #1 regret in life is knowing there have been times in my life when I've pushed my friends closer to hell by my actions. I've had to ask for forgiveness from some of those friends and its a humbling experience.


Ask yourself today who you need to show Love (Jesus) to and also ask yourself who you need to ask forgiveness from because your actions have shown them the exact opposite of love.

Remember that God is Love and the only way we can love our friends, family and neighbors is to show them Jesus!