Tuesday's Tool - Love Is....

Over the next few weeks I have decided to dedicate Tuesday's Tool to exploring love.  And what better verse to get a rounded and complete description of love than 1 Corinthians 13! Here is the passage...

4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (NASB)

So this week I want to look at the word Love. In this passage the word love is the greek word agape. "Agape means to choose to seek the best for others. This is a love based in the mind. We can chose to show agape love by actively thinking about, and deciding how we act toward other people. Agape is the word used when the Bible talks about Christian love for one another. Agape love is talking about our behavior towards others, not our feelings." (www.evangelical.us/love.html)  These verses in Corinthians are describing a selfless, purposeful outreach of love toward others that begins in our minds.

Let's look at God's example of love first.  John 3:16 says, "For God so loved (agaped) the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

When God gave Jesus to this sinful world, He had our best in mind. And when Jesus lived a perfect life, then got on the cross, taking on our sin and ultimately dying, He had our best in mind. Our Father agapes us so much that He wants us to have a relationship with Him. And He provided a way for that to be possible through the price that Jesus paid for our sin.

So how do we apply this? How do we agape others? We will explore, over the weeks to come, God's amazing description of love - and my hope is that as we learn the characteristics of love, it will deepen our understanding of not only the love God has for us, but also the love we can give to others.