The Value of Love… What’s It Worth to You?
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
What is love worth to you? What a question!
Fickle might be an answer for some. It depends on cost versus profit. Too rich for my blood budget. I stay away from investments that will break my bank. No guarantee, unmanageable! I don’t have the time nor the will to give it the attention it demands. Even the phrase, “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” (the poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson), would be, judged by some, poetry for the idiots who do not know any better!
Not everyone has such negative views as to the value of love, but I would suggest we all tend to answer first from what it means to and for me, AND THEN possibly what our love means to others, those who receive or those who wish to receive.
It’s in our DNA! The first Adam sinned and we became the ME MULTITUDE! We learned, followed, and practiced his heartfelt sin of all things ME.
Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Lust of the eyes??? It looks pleasing!!!
Lust of the flesh??? Good for food!!!
Pride of Life??? ABLE TO MAKE ONE WISE!!! (and happy, and healthy, and happy, and rich, and, and, and_____)
I believe the original sin was and is The greatest sin against LOVE. And I believe, in order to sin and/or continue to sin, we must change both the definition of and the value of LOVE. For, the value of LOVE is only set by and enriched by its definition.
Love is…
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;
Doesn’t describe many of us or our siblings, huh?
But it does begin to describe God and His actions toward His creation, especially the creature made in His image and the one who received His breath of life.
God IS Love! Knowing each and every one of us before we were anything but His thought (Psalm 139), He chose to take us from just a thought to giving the world this gift called you… this gift called me.
KNOWING that not all would agree with the term gift, God KNEW the the plans He has for the gifts He gives and the world He gives them too.Isaiah 55:11 So will My word (each and every creature is His word of love… He spoke and it was so – Genesis) be which goes forth from My mouth (He breathed into us His breath of life); It (this gift of life) will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
Love IS God giving and its value is returning to Him in victory.
This weekend was the celebration of God’s ultimate victory over death (the wages of our sin called ME!ME!ME!) True to our earthly nature, some of us have taken this celebration of God’s LOVE, devoured the truth of the victory of The Resurrection (proof of death’s defeat), and degraded the value of God’s gift to bunnies, chocolate, pretty clothes and churches, calling the whole thing “Easter Worship”.
Is this really the value of LOVE? ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. (Matthew 15:8-9)
I’m here to tell you, if this is the value of your LOVE, it is worthless. If your Love’s definition is a circus, counts me out! Your bunnies of lies will only propagate, your chocolate will turn bitter with age, your pretty clothes will be nothing but dirty rags when the work of relationship needs doing, and the churches that worship the ways of the world will never provide a safe haven from evil.
I’ll confess… my love can be just as shallow… For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. (Romans 7:19)
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)
I do not love like God… BUT that is my upward call! I FORGET my way of life and love and I LOOK TO GOD to direct, define, and value LOVE.
I want to love His way and I want to know love like He knows love. (“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8)
What is the value of love? What is its worth to me? It is worth loving the Lord my God with my whole heart, my whole soul, and my whole might… and then (and only then will I be able) to love my neighbor as myself. Deuteronomy 6:5-6
Love is worth it all!
Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
And when you’ve PRESENTED the WHOLE of you… you will know the true definition and value of love!
YOU WILL KNOW LOVE! And it will be for eternity!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.