What is True Love?

With Valentines just passing and knowing I am going to speaking at the next Funtimers (Sr. Adults) gathering, this came to mind. The word”LOVE” comes up all the time. I see society throwing this word “LOVE” out with no reservation. So with that said it caused me to dive into what is “TRUE LOVE?”

I once heard a story of a wife who came into a pastor’s office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me." The pastor suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you've convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, and then drop the bomb. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him." With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised?" And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting "as if." For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, and sharing.

When she didn't return, The Pastor called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?" "Divorce?" she exclaimed, "Never! I discovered I really do love him." Her actions had changed her feelings. The motion resulted in emotion. The ability for her to show love established loved she didn't know was there and she saw the love could and was reciprocated.  
In the world of the 21st century, loves seems to be so far away: Crime rates are increasing, there are more violence on the streets. People are more lovers of themselves as Mark has shared with us in past sermons.

In times of pressures, instead of driving the families closer to each other seems to tear families apart. When there is problem in the church and seeking for a solution, the church as a whole is quarreling and breaking apart. The power of love seems to be absent even in the people of God.

You know thinking about that reminds me about Paul. He wrote a letter to a group of immature Christians in the ancient city of Corinth. The Corinthians were people who had cut loose from their own heritage. Corinth was over thrown by the Romans in 149 B.C. Then nearly a hundred years later the descendants of those who had been carried away in chains came back and rebuilt the city.

Paul came to Corinth and preached; many were converted but still had the culture of their environment in their hearts. But because he loved them he diligently wrote at least 2 letters to them, giving them instructions as to how Christians live and love in a secular world and I want to share them with you.

I. THE VALUE OF LOVE which you will find in (1 Cor. 13:1-3)
Which says:

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.

Remember, the Corinthians were Greeks, and they prided themselves on their great orators. Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle were all Greeks. And Paul is saying though I had their tongues, though I had the power to sway vast crowds with articulation of my speech, if I did not love, I am nothing. Yet, Paul contends, the greatest articulation of speech in the world is nothing apart from love.

Remember Verse 2 says,

If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. 

Paul is basically saying I would be "worthless, meaningless, of no value". Think of it like this. If you have a very tiny amount of something, you can measure it, but when Paul said, "I would be nothing” that means if we don’t have love then we are like a paralyzed person.

Love says psychiatrist A.A. Brill, "is necessary to survival. It is quite as essential for a person to have love," says the doctor, "as to have pure air and food to sustain him."

II. THE TEST OF LOVE (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

A illustration I found speaks of this very thing and I want to share it with you today.

When cartoonist Charles Schulz dined in the home of a friend, the host remarked that he needed to set off his dinner jacket. He disappeared and returned a few minutes with a heavy chain from which a medallion hung, and across the face of the medallion were the letters "love". Schultz fingered it for a few minutes and then handed it back. With a wry "Charley Brown" smile on his face, he said, "It’s just too hard for me. Do you have one that says, LIKE? In his honesty, Schultz pointed out an important truth. No matter how necessary it is, love is not easy.

I truly believe only God can really turn our "likes" to "loves" by the help of Grace and Faith.

Should I really defend the premise that many today really don’t know what love is?

What are the tests of love?

First, says Paul: Love suffers long.

A young man said to his father at breakfast one morning, "Dad, I’m going to get married." "How do you know you’re ready to get married?" asked the father. "Are you in love?" "I sure am," said the son. "How do you know you’re in love?" asked the father. "Last night as I was kissing my girlfriend good-night, her dog bit me and I didn't feel the pain until I got home." 
Those obviously are not expressions of true love. 

"We absolutely can’t wait to get married, "says a young couple in their late teens. You can’t wait? If you can’t, I would seriously question that what attracts you to each other is real love. As you know, many couples enter into marriages because of physical body, attractive appearances, pleasant personalities, stableness, etc. All that factors lead to hasty marriages.

Second THING IS, Love is patience.
The patience of love which helps a person before marriage also helps him after marriage.

Third is , Love is kind.
I was read an article about the impact of love on neglected children who are classified as retarded. The article told, "children were ignored and neglected, not kissed or hugged, or spoken to, and given a little stimulation, their intelligence degenerated."

Then while searching after reading this I ran across this article from Chicago Daily News….
The prominent psychiatrist Karl Menninger was featured in paper called "Love working miracles for the mentally Ill in Kansas." Dr. Menninger contended that Love is one of the most effective cures in healing mental illness. I can speak on that from experience as some of you may know. My mom & Dad ran a mentally challenged assistant living home. I saw where some patients would take medicines, therapy, etc… but a lot of them simply got better just with good old fashion love and care. Dr. Menninger says 80% of his patients recovered not by medicine but by one single word: And that is LOVE!

Love envies not.
The New Living Translation Bible puts it, Love is not jealous. You know, Solomon was a man who knew something of jealousy. Song of Sol. 8:6 says,

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame.

Real love knows nothing of selfishness.

Philippians 2:4 makes it clear.

Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

One of my favorites Paul speaks about Love is…. Love bears all things.

The word “Bear” in 1 Cor. 13:7 tells us quite a bit about Christian love.

Bear is a verb (it describes action).  Bear is also a present tense verb (on-going action). This means when times get hard don’t pick up your ball and leave. It simply means hold on and endure.

III. THE PERMANENCY OF LOVE which you can find

(1 Cor. 13:8-13)

But In verse 8, Paul makes a rather categorical statement when he says, "Love never fails." Paul is saying that on the stage of life, love is bound to win. It is certain to succeed. And those who would practice it will never be defeated no matter how poorly they appear to be playing their part on the stage of life.

I think we all know this, but just as a reminder, will come a day in our lives when everything that we possess will fall away, but love will live on and on.

In Conclusion, one of my favorite definitions I have ever seen of LOVE was on a poster an it went like this:

"Love is like a bridge that connects our hearts when we’re apart, The rainbow that colors our world when we’re together, And the bond that keeps us learning and growing together in the LORD!"

I hope you have an amazing day! God bless!