“Love One Another….”

What is love?  This is not an easy question to answer.  Love is many faceted!  Think of love this way.  Just as there are many varieties of apples, there are, also, many varieties of love.  In the apple world we find such luscious fruit as Granny Smith, Akane, Fuji, Yellow Delicious, Red Delicious, etc.  In fact, there are some 7,500 varieties of apples!

Although I have not attempted to count all the varieties of love, there are probably just as many as there are varieties of apples. Off hand, I think of love between parents and children, love between casual friends, love between very close friends, love between grandparents and grandchildren, agape love between brothers and sisters in the Christian church, love for God, and love between husband and wife.

One of my college English professors often expressed his belief that love involves principles and the application of those principles to our human relationships.  He expanded on this belief by asking how one could love his enemy if love did not involve the expression of the principle of kindness and sympathy toward that person. (See Matthew 5:44.)  Therefore, there are several qualities of love that we can identify:

Treating all others as we would want them to treat us.

Showing positive attitudes toward others.

Looking for the best in others.

In challenging cases, having warm feelings toward an individual.

Forgiving others who have offended us.

Thanking those who have befriended us.

No doubt, the best known chapter in the Bible on the importance of love is found in 1 Corinthians, 13.  A portion of it reads: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And 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, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing. The “poem” closes with these words of wisdom: 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Think of faith, hope, and love as a three-legged stool.  For the stool to be of use, all of the legs must be attached; however, the Apostle Paul boldly states that one of the three is the “greatest.”  This is love.

Just as love is the greatest leg of the stool, so love is the greatest quality of the Christian.  May God give us the power to love our friends and our enemies! By doing such, we can show a materialistic world the healing power that love can play in this world of sin and suffering.

Until next week, may God richly bless you and yours.

Contact: fhevener@oilart.com; (434) 392-6255; www.guthriememorial.org .

©2016 by Fillmer Hevener