Teach Us You.

If there has to be a bottom line in Christianity it would be- love.

What is love-

1Jn_4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1Jn_4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

A few days ago we talked about those who do many wonderful things and the fact of the matter being, you can do amazingly wonderful, seemingly loving things and have no love at all in you.

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 

Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 

Many wonderful works- yet Jesus doesn't know them because there was no real love in them.

God is love.

When Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan - He was describing an act of love.

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 

Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 

Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 

Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 

Luk 10:29  But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 

Luk 10:30  And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 

Luk 10:31  And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 

Luk 10:32  And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 

Luk 10:33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 

Luk 10:34  And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 

Luk 10:35  And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 

Luk 10:36  Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 

Luk 10:37  And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. 

Compassion, caregiving, feeding, tending to without EVER expecting anything in return.  That was done out of love. Sure, it could have been done out of self-serving- someone wanting others to notice their *love* but it wasn't, not in this parable.

Love. And it isn't self-love we need, though nowadays a lot of people would say I was crazy for saying that because there is a huge push for loving ourselves first before we can love others.

Some use this though--

Mar 12:31  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 

Loving your neighbor as yourself…  is this telling us to love ourselves?

Mat 7:12  Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. 

If we have no love for ourselves does this mean we can't love others? No, because we are loving others as WE desire to be loved. We are loving them as if they were US. We are treating them NOT how we are treated, but how we'd want to be treated. 

We do not have to love ourselves in the way we are encouraged to. We LOVE God and LOVE others, to the point we are willing to die for them, not preserve our lives above and beyond theirs. When we love others, we are loving ourselves, when we concentrate on loving ourselves we lose sight of others and we can never lose sight of others.

God forgive us, teach us love, teach us YOU.

All through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever!!!!!!!