Many people talk about love and practice love and they feel happy and warm when they hear the word “love.” Love is so much precious to everybody and everybody wants to have some. But if we ask what love is, each person gives a different answer. Then what is the true love that we must learn? Since we are talking about the love of God and the bible, we must think love in the perspective of God. Many times and all through the bible, God teaches us to love.
John 13:34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Then what is the love Jesus wanted to teach us? People says: love is helping others, providing the poor, taking care of sick, giving contributions, donating organs, etc… In the perspective of the world, all these and numerous other things can be considered as love. Then are these the love Jesus wanted to teach us? Did Jesus provide necessities to people such as food, clothes, or shelters? No. The bible teaches us these are not the true love God wanted to teach us.
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Here God is comparing the love with many things to show the supremacy of love. Love is greater than speaking tongues, the gift of prophecy, wisdom and knowledge, and also Paul says that love is greater than “contributions, donation of money and possession, self-sacrifice for the sake of others.” It means the concept of love of the people of the world is not considered as the love in the perspective of God. God clearly defines that love is different from donating money and possessions or sacrificing even his own body. These are not love in the eyes of God. Then what is the true love God wants to teach us?
John 3:16 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
The love God wants to teach us is the love through which eternal life and salvation can be given to the people. Even though we give food, clothes, but if our action does not lead people to eternal life, it is nothing in the eyes of God. Even though we sacrifice our own life for the sake of others, but if our action does not produce eternal life in others, it is nothing in the eyes of God. Even though a person has great knowledge and know all the mysteries, but cannot save one soul, all his wisdom and knowledge are nothing. God think the true love is an action which leads people to eternal life.
However a tree may look good and beautiful with strong branches and thick leaves, if it does not produce any fruit it is nothing. It is the same with all human activities. However may it look good and righteous, if they do not lead into eternal life, it is like a beautiful tree with no fruit which would be cut down in the end. Then what is the act of love we must learn from God so that we can produce the fruit of eternal life? One young man asked Jesus how to enter into the eternal life.
Matthew 19:16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
The only act of love which is truly meaningful in the eyes of God is obeying the commandments of God. The only good thing we can do to enter into eternal life is following the commands of God. That is why Jesus said to people that they must follow his command to show the true love they had toward God. He said, “If you love me, obey my commands.” In the world of sin and death, God came and taught us to show love to him and also to the peoples of the world by obeying the commands of God because the commands of God can lead us to eternal life.
In this lawless world, Christ Ahnsahnghong came for the second time and teaches us to love one another just as I loved you. God gave his own life to save souls and give them eternal life and now teaches to show the same love to others. Now we must know the true laws of God which can lead us to eternal life and must obey them and teach them to people so that they may also be able to receive eternal life by obeying the commands of God. Jesus commanded us:
John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
For eternal life, God said that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood through the new covenant of the Passover. Without the love and sacrifice of God in the Passover, nobody can have eternal life. Now if we want to show and practice the love God gave us, we must obey the command of God by keeping the Passover. And also deliver the Passover to the people so that they can also receive eternal life by keeping the commands of God. Then we may be able to fulfill the command of God: Love one another as I have loved you. Father and Mother loved us and granted us eternal life through their love and sacrifice of the Passover. Now we must follow the love of God by leading people to eternal life through the Passover and then we can practice the true love God showed us.
