I am writing a series on love.  This next post is appears to be counter intuitive to love and God.  It is going to be hard to explain so please be patient.  An essential aspect for loving others and loving God is to love yourself.  This is not the attitude most of themselves when we are told that we are sinners and from this are made to feel bad about our self.   We should feel bad but after we repent we should change our opinion about our self.  After all Christ died on the cross for our sins and for us to be overcomers.

What does that love looks like.  We are all afraid to be too self involved or feel like we are enamored with our self.  This makes many people uncomfortable.  We need to see our self the way God sees us.   He loves us even with the sins we perform or sin when we don’t perform the actions that we are supposed to do.  He loves us so much that when we behave badly, He always gives us a solution to get back to the correct path.  Sometimes we feel so badly, we feel we don’t deserve it.  This is our self destructive nature is coming through.  Nothing good is exhibited when one is debasing himself.  We have a God with open arms ready to receive us.

Another reason to love our self is that people tend to judge other people based on our own outlook.  If we feel bad about our self, it makes it hard to feel good about other people.  If we love our self in a correct manner, then it makes it easier to love others.

What does it feel like to love our self in a correct way.  One way is the way we feel after we help another person out.  Another way is what we feel after we come out of an inspiring worship service or a great sermon.  Still another way is that feeling that we have when we think or do things with our good friends or our relatives that we feel close to.  These are examples.  To summarize, we feel good about our self is when we perform action that we were created for no matter how uncomfortable it may feel at the time.

As I said in my other posts on love, I don’t have the whole story.  I don’t know about your relationship with God.  After reading this you might have corrections to what I said or more information to add to what I said.  I never what to come between you and God and that is what is what would happen if this information is some how complete.  You need to enjoy God your self by talking to Him about these issues.  This will show you how much He loves you.

Mat 22:39 And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

This is the second part of the command that Jesus said was the most important.  This seems to require the most extensive explanation.  I am going split this topic into other categories that will be discussed at a later date.  Here is a list of some of the categories that I will talk about later:

1.  Showing each other love while working together.
2.  Showing towards people that don’t like you.
3.  Showing love towards people that irritate you.
4. Love for the lost and misguided.

There are other subjects that could be listed.  These are all I can think of at this time.  You could think of other subjects.  My mind is so limited.

God takes how people treats us or how we treat other people personally.  We are his creation.  He used himself as a template to each other.  When Saul (Later called Paul) was persecuting Christian, Jesus appeared to him and said, “Why are you persecuting me?”  Jesus said me not my followers.  To persecute Christians was the same as persecuting Him.  What greater love that a God could show placing his people at the level as Himself.

Galatians 5:13, 14 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This scripture almost seems in conflict with the greatest commandment.  After to fulfill the entire law, don’t you also need to love God also.  This must refer to the attitude we are to treat one another.  We are not to treat or see each other as Gods, but as God’s creation.  How do you feel when after you drew a painting, or put together a kit or anything else one makes, that the heart and soul was put into.  Any complaint about what you made is usually taken personally and you feel insulted by the complaint.   This shows how God regards each of us.  We are his creation.  Anytime we are insulted, God takes it personally even with our imperfections.  God is showing us the road to perfection and is continually working on us.  He does not like it when someone interferes with His work.  We may need to go to heaven to accomplish that, but God is working on it while we are on Earth.  God does it because He loves us.

Another aspect of loving each other is that God has gave us permission to call Him our Father.  That means He thinks of us as His sons and daughter (little s and d).  Which father likes it when their children fight against each other.  God loves us as we are His children and we should observe each other as God sees us.

As I said in the other blog posts, my mind is finite is finite.  I never regard what I say is the final word or something that can’t be corrected.  This is a writing that is to be a starting point for a more involve relationship with God.  Happy travels.

Christian love is the ultimate topic to talk about.  Lets continue.

Lets look at Mark 12:28b to 31.

Mark 12:28b-31  “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Matthew added this in verse 22:40   “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

I am going to first discuss each sentence differently in different essays.  I am only going to cover the surface.  A person who meditates on Gods love will have an incredible experience that will take what I say and take it to a deeper level or cover another dimension on love that I am not cover.

Lets discuss this.

The first line is “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God , the Lord is one.”  What does this have to do with love.  Lets look at what is said.

Fact 1:  God is the same now as before man was created.

Fact 2:  The love God shows is not passive but active.

Fact 3:  The active love that God showed before man was a circle of love between the difference persons of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Fact 4:  When God created Adam and Eve they were going to be part of the circle of love by the Trinity.

Fact 5:  When Adam and Eve sinned, they fell out of favor with God.  They were no longer invited to be part of the circle of love.

Fact 6:  When Jesus died on the cross, part of the results is that we were invited back into that circle of love.

This is very important.  This was a particular hard subject to write about.  To paraphrase someone else that I heard years ago: If you don’t believe in the Trinity you can lose your salvation.  If you try to explain the Trinity you can lose your mind.  It is one of the mysteries of God.  It is three persons all acting as one God.

I may be stretching the parallels, but God wants us to be together as one.  He did not say we can’t disagree.  The strength of our beliefs is that even with separate stances in our beliefs, we can still love one another and work together.   No matter how the day went, when the day is done we should be loving each other as family.  It is hard to do but God gave us his Spirit to help maintaining that love and unity to each other.

I am repeating what I said in a previous post and I’ll repeat it in further posts.  I do not regard what I say is the final word.  My purpose of this series of posts is to give some thoughts to think about and come before God.  Coming before God will strengthen your relationship with Him.  What can be more important than that.

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What is love.  Is it a learned trait or is love passed on as an inherited trait?  If you believe in God, knowing what love is more comprehensible.  We have God all around us.  Children are more aware of God because of their purity and innocence.  Eventually they grow out of it and the presence of God awareness slowly diminishes.   God is still there.

A person who meditates on Gods love will have an incredible experience.   I hope people will take what I say and go to a deeper level or cover another dimension on love that I don’t cover.  Spending your own time meditating and thinking on how God loves you personalizes God’s love and takes His love in a direction that I am inadequate to take you.

God’s love is without limit. That is why this study will consists of many separate essays. Many more than I can plan. Every time I list the possible essays I can think of, there are additional dimensions of God’s love. To fully explain God’s love will be impossible. Part of my purpose to write these series of essays is to make other people realize what God’s love means to them. God’s love means something different to each person. He treats us as individuals and as part of a larger group.

What I intend to express first is what to do about love and then give the definition of love. Because of the extensive subject matter, I will not necessary completely follow this structure. Some aspects will be talked about in the order as it comes to me.

Why I am sequencing this essay like this. It is because whenever anyone references love, they mention a passage or infer something from the Bible. God gave us the Bible. Even more He is the Bible. God gave us the Bible to give us insights on who He is. God is still mysterious and since God is love, love is mysterious. This group of essays will not answer all the questions. In fact you might have more questions afterwards than any questions that might be answered in these essays.

My Greek is not strong. I was told that there was five words meaning love. Two of them are not mentioned in the Bible. Eros is a third word meaning love that I am not going to discuss. This is the sexual form of love. This article is not going to talk about it. It requires a separate essay. The last two words is philio and agape. These words are what this essay is going to cover. Philio means brotherly love. Agape means unconditional love. This is the type of love that God loves us.  These two words are usually discussed as interchangeable.  +

A person who meditates on Gods love will have an incredible experience.  Ask God to give you the ability to know about Him.  It may take time but God will guide you, if you are pliable enough to follow Him to where he wants you to go.  This is a start of a great adventure that will change your life.