Lessons of Love: The Reality of Love Giving

From the pen of Hannah Sorterup:


Love; what is it really? This four letter word is everywhere: written into song lyrics, screamed at us through advertisements, plastered on billboards, and emblazoned on t-shirts. But what does this word really mean?

Often the word "love" or the phrase "I love you" is used as a bargaining chip, rather than as a sign of affection and devotion as it was intended. A girl says "I love you" to her boyfriend in hopes of hearing it in return, a husband as an apology for wrongdoing, a child as a plea to get what he wants. Or it's used as an exchange for something else: "If I tell her that I love her, maybe she won't leave", "If he knows I love him, maybe he'll quit", if, if, if.

But what about those who have nothing to give in exchange for the love they crave? What about those the world has cast out and shut down: the pregnant teenager, the broken drug addict, the lonely divorcee, the friendless alcoholic, the abandoned homeless man? These people are perhaps the ones who need our love the most but are also the ones who are least likely to receive it, even from those who claim to be "Christians". Because of poor choices, these people have nothing to give in exchange in order to "buy" love.

I once heard a quote that went like this "I am neither a buyer nor a seller of love. If it is bought or sold it is not love." I could not agree with this more. Jesus Christ gave the greatest gift of love possible: the sacrifice of His own life for people who hated him and had absolutely nothing to give Him in return. As Christians or "little Christs" that is the example we are given of how to love others. We are to pull out all the stops in order to love others sacrificially and with reckless abandon even if they have absolutely nothing to give in return.

One last thought...
In his book "Boy Meets Girl", Joshua Harris compares the "love" our world gives with the love that Jesus Christ gave in this way "The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play, and, as we watch, the world says, ‘This is love.’ God takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says ‘This is love.’"

Love101: A Call to the Christians

Mahatma Gandhi (born Mohandas) was a Hindu from India who was most well known for his peaceful protests, and his anti-violence beliefs. He was a heavily religious man, and he very accurately addressed an unfortunate issue in the Christian church when he said:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

He was absolutely right. As Christians, we tend to stray from the true message of Christ, and focus on a lot of negative in a person. In that sense, we are very unlike Christ.

Need I remind you who Jesus Christ is? He came to the earth to save it, He was the most absolute perfect being this earthly world has ever seen, and He is to be our role model for how we live our lives.

With that being said, Jesus was accepting of people, and loving to everyone. He hung out with the drags of society and preached to them. He expressed a love to those individuals.

How come we can’t do these things? We get too caught up on judging people for what they've done. I know we are not perfect, and we are capable of failure and hurt, but that does not mean that we should forget why we have been placed on this earth. We should help those who need it, fix those who have been broken, and preach to the lost!

It is for this very reason that we need to react with love.

So what will you do?

Love101: Be Love to the World

What is the definition of love? It’s a question that seems all too simplistic until actually addressed with the intent of creating an explanation. Most commonly love is connected with relationships, and in those scenarios it is often confused with lust, infatuation, and a simple middle school crush. How do we set it straight? How do we love someone without having it be confused with those things?

It is quite simple really: our actions show our love. To put it in a blunt way, our actions define love. If we act as a certain way, condemning those who do wrong, how much better are we from that person? Our response is so simple that it is one of the most basic of human skills. We need to react with love.

A very easy way to do this is to avoid judgment, and to build people up instead! Show them love, embrace them as a person or aid them where they need help, and of course, forgive!

We should be helping people through hard times with our love. So the challenge is quite simple: be more than just a light in this world, instead, BE love to the world.

Love101: The Greatest of These

Perhaps one of the most cliche verses in the Bible is found in 1st Corinthians. It is a message that we all should follow - the message of love.

"1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love....

But the greatest of these is love."

Love101: Love at a Distance

In May of 2010, Beth Gavel, along with a team of individuals travelled to Honduras in order to spread the love of God and to work for His glory. This is a section of her story:

From the pen of Beth Gavel:

“When I was in Honduras, I was an outsider. Even though I was different the people there still accepted me and everyone else on the team.

Another big thing is that I have a tattoo on my leg, and another member of the team had a tattoo on his arm. In Honduras, if you have a tattoo it means that you are part of a gang. Even though we had these marks on us, the people chose not to judge, they didn't even ask us about the tattoos! At first they may have been a bit wary but they didn't let that stop them from talking to us.

The whole trip all of the team received an outpouring of love from the Hondurans. They became our friends immediately and just accepted us and loved us for who we are.

It actually helped me on my way to accept who God created me to be and accepting who I am and accepting myself. It was weird but I felt more accepted there as myself than I have anywhere, it was that agape love which was poured out.”

God calls us to love and accept everyone. The Hondurans understood God’s love, and they expressed it. The challenge for our culture is to love as we have been loved.

Love101: The Theology of Love

People do not realize one of the missions of the church. Instead, they choose to judge as opposed to express love.

Who are we to condemn people? We are supposed to be the light of God in this world, not to act as God.

This trend is happening more and more with Christians of this modern world. Not saying that everyone is like that, it just seems to be an increasingly active issue within the church community. People never want to tell their Christian friends anything because they are afraid of the Christian judgment... do you realize how unbelievably twisted that is?

This is a topic I am really passionate about because it happens so much in our world. Its like our generation is looking at overly conservative elders only to forget the theology behind the elder’s wisdom and still judge people. What is even more screwed up about this, is that most people will take more offense to the last sentence then the real issue at hand.

God calls us to love everyone with "agape" love, the very same way that Jesus loved us. We are to be unconditional and even self-sacrificing with our love. By having absolute love in Jesus stored within our heart, we are called to love everyone! It appears almost cliche but evidently not clear enough, that in John, we are called to LOVE as God has loved us (13:34).