BIBLICAL LOVE:

On another one of my Blogs my subject for today was love. And I thought that this is a good place to talk about the love God wants us to have for other people.
See God sets the standard for us and he lets us know what he expects.
For example in the very beginning of the Bible (in Genesis) God shows us how we are supposed to deal with love between a man and a woman that is to say marital love. When we get married we are to leave our parents and cleave, or be joined to, our spouse. At that moment when the marriage bond is formed the family we grew up with is replaced by a new family bond that we have created.

That bond that is created is one that brings two totally different people together. And there may be differences in the way they were each raised. They also have different personalities and such and all this comes together to make a new experience for the new couple.
It is important at that time for the two people in that relationship to do two things. 1 they need to communicate, two they need to learn.
When my wife and I got married we had a truckload of differences, and they made life… Interesting… for both of us. But we were in a situation in a little studio apartment where we could not run away from each other and I think that helped we had to talk about things.
But there was more to it than that, clearly because the same situation did not help our neighbors any. (on either side of us), Maybe we learned from their mistakes too…

I love my wife and we have just this month celebrated 10 years together, Boy do I feel sorry for her putting up with ME for that long… but I hope that we have many more ahead.

There is another love though that is out there. We are to love our spouse, our parents our children and all and we are also to love others. Funnily enough we can use a similar model for all our relationships and God is the one who sets the tone for that.
Because the concept of how to act when you love someone is in the Bible. “God commanded his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, he sent his son to die for us. (Romans 5:8)

How about “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) or how about “A new command I give to 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 13:34-35).

And what is the idea of love Jesus portrayed? It was service. He died on the cross for us he washed his disciples’ feet and he gave us this parable in Matthew 25:35-40.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
Then the righteous will answer him, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?
The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

That is what love is about That is the love that God shows us and that is the love he wants us to show to others.