Jesus & You [On Hold]

❁There Is No Other Love, Like God's Unconditional Love❁

        God's wish is for us to be loved with His kind of love. Some may know that there is four kinds of love. There is the Eros, Storge, Phileo, and the Agape. There is so much confusion to what true love is. I was thinking upon this as my teacher ask the people in my classroom to tell her their definition of love. All these bad adjectives were said, it was so saddening because they do not know what love is. They have a corrupted definition of love because they haven't experienced the one true love. They know what human love is and the bad experiences they have gone through with it before, but they haven't experience true, unselfish love; the kind of love that God wants us to have.

        As I said before, there is four types of love. It is saddening to think that the dominating one is the Eros; named after the Greek god of love. This kind of love is selfish. This kind of love is based on physical passion, attraction, and fulfillment. This is not a reliable kind of love, but many people have confused this kind of love for the true love that God wants us to have. Many have married each other just because they were attracted physically and they confused lust with love. Two very different feelings. This kind of love is not from God. God warns us to be careful and not to be fooled by this kind of love as the scars that a broken heart can leave on the soul are big.

        People have come up with these kinds of love and think that all love comes from God. No. Agape love comes from Jehovah. God is love, but love is not God. Do you see the difference? This is because God is love, but love is not God as there is some kinds of love that do not come from God but are perverted kinds of love that God advises us to never settle for, no matter how tempting or good enough they seemed.

        The Eros love is the kind of love that we see today in movies, TV shows, read in books, and almost everywhere around us. It is all about physical attraction, lust, and perverted thoughts, minds, and bodies. All of it. Hollywood has made millions of dollars portraying this kind of love all around their movies and shows. The worst is that this influences many to believe this is the kind of love they should have and settled for and that everything would end well. This is why you see some girls are high school or adults going from boyfriend to boyfriend as if it was a contest for who has the most boyfriends in a month to win. This is why you see marriages that only last months or the first two years and they are done and want divorce. This happens when you settle for the cheap kind of love and when you don't know that the love of God is the greatest one that you should aspire to have.

        Then we have the second kind of love, the Storgé. This means it is a love of affection, this is mostly the love between family members. It is a natural love, familiar love. This kind of love even though more secure than Eros, it is not love that stays on forever, or that endures all things, forgives all things. We see this in cases where the daughter hates the mother for an argument or misunderstanding they had. Even though sometimes the love of mother is compared to the love of God, it is not true. This is because a love of mother can be strong but not like God's love for us. We see many mothers that don't love their children, many mothers that have killed their unborn child.

        The next that follows is the Phileo love. This is a love that is based on friendship. It is a 50-50 kind of love. Many couples of the world outside that are not Christians based their love on this and they make it to many years of marriage. This love is as well stronger than Eros, and this is why we see some marriages that have being together forever. However, this love like I mentioned before is a 50-50 kind of love. Each partner gives 50% of themselves and the other partner gives the other 50%. But when one partner cannot comply and give the other half, the marriage crumbles. This is the kind of love that I scratch your back and you scratch mine. I do something for you but you do something for me. You need my love and I need to feel secure. Some marriages don't know how to handle well when the other person is not giving the other half and this is why many marriages fell. Comments like "He didn't spend enough time with me" "He didn't make me feel loved" "He couldn't afford to take care of us" "I gave him all my time, and he never gave me his" "This is a relationship of two, we both have to give and sacrifice equal amounts" We see comments everywhere and these kind of reasons as to why the divorce happened. This is a good love to start upon but not to base your whole life is, as sometimes when the other partner fails to give what you wanted, it will end.

        Next is the most beautiful one. Agape love. The unconditional love of God. No human possesses this and can give you this kind of love, unless God Himself puts it in the person and loves you through him or her. It is the seeking of welfare and betterment of others no matter how we feel. Agape love doesn't define itself by feelings or affection. We can prove this at the time when Jesus died for us at the cross, even though He didn't want to go through that painful dead, His love for us was greater. He himself told the Father, if it be His will to let Him pass this cup, but not to be His will but the will of the Father (Matthew 26:39). Jesus thought about us, and not of His feelings and the pain that He would feel in order to pay for all our sins.

         Jesus was the greater expression of love that can be shown to all humanity and never surpass. Even when your husband may tell you in his vows that he will protect you, and be with you no matter what. Even if your mother tells you that she loves you, even if your friend tells you that they will never betray you. Even if your boyfriend tells you that you are the only one he loves. Actions speak more than words, and that is true. Jesus never said directly, I love you because He knew that actions spoke more than words. He showed us His love at the cross. "We loved Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Even in our sin God loved us and saw potential in us that He wants to use for His kingdom. He saw us with the eyes of love. We were not paid according to our sins and misdeeds.

God gave us the perfect definition of His love. And we find this description in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres."

        Is this really the kind of love you are receiving? Don't settle for anything less than what God wants to give you. Don't be desperate trying to find copies of love because you want to feel loved. You are loved by the Savior and Creator of the whole universe. He sees you as precious, and He loves you. He is willing to trade nations for you! God's love keeps no record of the failings you have committed, it does not provoke anger in you. He doesn't boast telling you how many times He has done things for you and many times you haven't done nothing or enough for Him. His love is patient, endures all things, always trusts, always hopes and perseveres in hope for you to one day come to Him and be filled with His love.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

**The song to the side, is amazing for worship. Gives all the glory to God, who deserves it. I really like it and will be singing it in our church for the New Year service. 

God bless you!