Jesus Defines Love from the Cross

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And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13)
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Valentine’s Day, a time when the card companies, flower shops, and candy stores take in the profits. Love is in the mail and in the flower shop vans– sent and delivered. Love is in the stores where merchandise is promoted for one’s sweetheart. Love is in the restaurants by candlelight. Love in one day –February 14th.

Can love be fully expressed in a day? There was ONE DAY when love was truly demonstrated and given, not with candy, flowers, cards, or dinner at a fancy restaurant–but on a wooden cross.
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. (John 3:16)

Jesus gave us the example of what love is through His actions:
(16)This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (17) If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? (18) Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  (1 John 3:16-18)

Our Lord exemplified humility on the cross as He took our sins upon Himself. He showed great patience with us, even as sin continued while He endured this trial. He acted in gentleness, not lashing out at those who were crucifying Him, but instead asking the Father to forgive them–to forgive us.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2)

The love Christ showed to us all that day on the cross, with outstretched hands held by nails, has endured past those dark hours to the sunrise when He arose and to every sunrise thereafter and yet to come. Love knows no boundaries of time.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are                 tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.                                    (1 Corinthians 13:8)

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Purchase the card, the candy, the flowers, and go to the restaurant on Valentine’s Day, knowing that it is only one day of many. Love is washing dishes, doing laundry, watching the kids to let a spouse rest, sitting quietly together without conversation on the beach, staying up all night with a sick child, spending time with an elderly neighbor, listening to a baby sleep. Love is in the days.

To know Love is to know Christ, the crucified Savior, the victorious Redeemer:
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)

(Sharon  G. Tate blog 02/12/17) teacherforjesus.com  Meditations on God’s Word

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