What does LOVE mean?
The bible says a lot about love:
Mark 12 v 33 "To love him (GOD) with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
This is something said by a teacher of the law whilst in discussion with Jesus. "When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God"(Mark 12 v 34). This to me shows that this man had almost hit the nail on the head. He has suggested that love for God and your neighbour is far more important than any ritual or tradition of the Jewish religion.
Burnt offerings and sacrifices were a very important part of the Jewish religion. The overall hebrew word for these was "qorbanot" which is derived from the word "Qof-Resh-Bet" meaning 'to draw near', and so this ritual allowed the Jewish people to draw near to God. These 'qorbanot' were given for many different reasons such as giving thanks to God, showing gratitude and love to God, or to ritually cleanse an individual. Burnt offerings were specifically used to demonstrate a submission to the will of God. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/qorbanot.html)
We can see therefore that for Jesus loving God and your neighbour was tantamount to completeting and offering these sacrifices. It also possibly indicates that love now achieves all that the burnt offerings and sacrifices were intended to.
It is as if love embodies the ultimate sacrifice, something that Jesus alludes to in John 15 v 13 "Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends".
There's a famous passage in the bible that is almost always the topic of every wedding sermon-1 Corinthians 13 v 4- 8a "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.".
I have read this passage so many times, and infact when I met my now boyfriend in september 2006, I had this posted on my Uni room wall to remind me that love is all of these things, and not anything else. To remind me that love is patient, and encourage me to wait for God's perfect timing for that relationship to begin.
Just today infact, i re-read this passage and saw something new. I realised that all the things that it states love is, do not encourage selfishness. The characteristics of love encourage self-sacrifice; guiding us to die to our human desires of envy, self want, pride, anger, rudeness, distrust, despair and giving up.
Personally I've learnt that love is just that; dying to our human selfish desires. I've had to learn that to love my boyfriend isn't to push for or seek pleasure from physical intimacy that should be kept for marriage but to refrain from it. To love him is to show him respect and know that it is not a case of not being able to be sexually intimate before marriage, but that I get to save that physical intimacy for a time that God has advised.
I have to remind myself constantly that ' Love is patient....[and]...it is not self seeking'.
Is that what love means?
Monday, 9 June 2008
Are you living
This is the opening post of my blog, which will explain the title. I wrote this in september 07, after a difficult few weeks.
" Over the past month or so i've had a lot of things to think about. They've mainly revolved around death. As you may know 49 days ago my grandad was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, 30 days ago he died of lung cancer.However, thats not what i wnt to focus on. But thats made me think about a few things and the events that occured in the past 30 days have changed me.What i want to ask is...'are you living?'
I know for one,i feel as though for the last month, as George put it today, i have just existed. Yeah i've been at uni, and doing work and things, but i cant really say i've lived. Im not talking about living as in 'woo bungee jumping and sky-diving', what im getting at, all be it in a long winded manner,is that i havent done anything out of the ordinary for my God. I cannot truely and honestly say i have been living for him.
Living for God i supposed to be EXCITING!putting yourself out there for him, being bold, unashamed to take him out to the people who need him most. Imagine how that makes him feel, that the people who need him most, i.e. those that dont know him, are lacking because i havent lived as i should.My campus breaks my heart, it is full of people who are themselves broken hearted, lost, scared, alone-the list is endless- but they neednt be.Perhaps, just perhaps if i lived how i am supposed to live, that would be different.
Im not just talking about obeying God, although that is still an integral part, but if we actually SACRIFICED ourselves for God, how much more of a difference would we see in this world. China are seeing 10,000 people a week come to know God, because they live like they believe. They live like there is a god worth sacrificing time for, sacrificing money for, risking their lives for. I am challenged to change and live like that. This world is crying,screaming out for someone to rescue them. Dont let urselves be the barrier to them being rescued."
" Over the past month or so i've had a lot of things to think about. They've mainly revolved around death. As you may know 49 days ago my grandad was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, 30 days ago he died of lung cancer.However, thats not what i wnt to focus on. But thats made me think about a few things and the events that occured in the past 30 days have changed me.What i want to ask is...'are you living?'
I know for one,i feel as though for the last month, as George put it today, i have just existed. Yeah i've been at uni, and doing work and things, but i cant really say i've lived. Im not talking about living as in 'woo bungee jumping and sky-diving', what im getting at, all be it in a long winded manner,is that i havent done anything out of the ordinary for my God. I cannot truely and honestly say i have been living for him.
Living for God i supposed to be EXCITING!putting yourself out there for him, being bold, unashamed to take him out to the people who need him most. Imagine how that makes him feel, that the people who need him most, i.e. those that dont know him, are lacking because i havent lived as i should.My campus breaks my heart, it is full of people who are themselves broken hearted, lost, scared, alone-the list is endless- but they neednt be.Perhaps, just perhaps if i lived how i am supposed to live, that would be different.
Im not just talking about obeying God, although that is still an integral part, but if we actually SACRIFICED ourselves for God, how much more of a difference would we see in this world. China are seeing 10,000 people a week come to know God, because they live like they believe. They live like there is a god worth sacrificing time for, sacrificing money for, risking their lives for. I am challenged to change and live like that. This world is crying,screaming out for someone to rescue them. Dont let urselves be the barrier to them being rescued."
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