If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:20-21
I believe the greatest pursuit is for … love. God is incomprehensible in total understanding. But we have clues from the scriptures about Him, and His attributes.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
Obviously then …we have a LONG way to go to understand what love really is. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 Paul tries to encapsulate some of love’s attributes. Reread the list and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you about them. How complex is love? How many facets does love have? Is Jesus the very embodiment of love? So pursuing Jesus will begin to teach you about … love.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15
The world’s understanding of love is selfish, and weak. Without the Holy Spirit the love we have is born of the flesh. We often act on that fleshly love rather than the fruit of the Spirit born within by Him. So is fleshly love really love?
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 1 John 3:1
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
The fruit of love by the Holy Spirit encapsulates all other eight fruit within it, making it the most complex fruit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Everything God is and does … is from the essence of His love. God is NOT human. God is NOT us. God did NOT come from the ‘created’. (Sorry …Mormon theology does not compute with the scriptures.) Thus we must look to the Holy Spirit for ANY lessons, revelation, inspiration, or definition on what love really is.
How can we truly and completely begin to understand something if we never experience it in many different ways? If I study an orange scientifically down to its molecular structure… do I really know it if I’ve never eaten one? Intellectual and mental knowledge will only take you so far. How can we really know ‘love’?
I propose that we can only really begin to know love is when ‘love’ indwells within us via His Holy Spirit. Every other version of love is just a shadow of the real thing.
How is the Holy Spirit asking you to show HIS love to others?
Tip: Listen to Him for instructions. It’s His love not yours. Make sure you are giving His love, and not your ‘idea’ of His love. God’s timing, delivery, presentation, humility, and gratefulness are all involved in this act of the gift / fruit of love.