Find True Love
December 23, 2001
Dear Friends,
I received a spam e-mail this week with the subject “Find True Love.” Here is what the note said:
“Tired of searching for love in all the wrong places? Find love easy online now. New…shop for boyfriends and girlfriends! Browse thousands and thousands of personals in your area! Largest online personal service in the world!!! Click here to find love now!”
“Click here to find love.” Sounds so easy doesn’t it? It seems like everyone is looking for true love. Who wouldn’t want to find true love? It is a tragedy that so many lonely people are out there. It is equally tragic (if not more so) that so many think they can find true love only to have their hearts broken.
Part of the problem is that people don’t know where to start looking for true love and even what true love is. The Bible gives us a definition of true love. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Of course, Jesus was speaking primarily about his own impending death on the cross. This act of love is the greatest love any man, woman or child can have. It is the most firm of all foundations for all other kinds of love – the love of a man and a woman, the love of an ecclesia, the love of parents and children. Without the foundation love of Christ, we are always, as the song and the e-mail says, “looking for love in all the wrong places.”
Once we know the love of Christ, we can truly know how to love others. “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) If we can say we would love someone to the depth and measure that Jesus loved us, we know true love. The love of Christ compels us to change our lives. “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (Eph. 5:2).
The greatest form of true love is easy to find if you look in the right place. The first place you want to look is not on some dating service website, but in your Bible. David and Jonathan knew this type of love. David said “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” The love that is greater than the love of a man and a wife is the love of Christ.
It is entirely appropriate to look for other kinds of love. The love between a husband and wife as well as the love between friends and family are what makes this mortal existence tolerable. However, the starting point is the love of Christ. Jesus challenges us with the statement “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” The interesting thing is that the love of Christ acts like salt on food. As salt brings out the flavor in food, the love of Christ improves our love for others. In loving Jesus more than all others, we love others more than we would have had we not loved Christ.
Few things have the impact of this love. “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2) As important as faith, knowledge and hope have in the life of the believer, the “the greatest of these is love.”
May the love of Christ be with you all,
Comments»
No comments yet.