My Dear Church Family,
In this month of February, I thought it beneficial to share a thought or two about Love. You know, Love is such a powerful word, yet it is one that is used interchangeably with so many different meanings. I mean, think of the following statements:
· I love chocolate
· I love sunny days
· I love a good laugh
· Jesus loves you and so do I
· Oh, how I love Jesus
· I love you (as said to my wife)
Do these all have the same meaning or the same heartfelt emotion attached to them? How could they? But isn’t it interesting that we use the same word to express ourselves in various situations.
Now don’t worry, I am not going to go into a lengthy dissertation of the various meanings of love…. that by itself would take up more than this entire newsletter. But rather I wanted to share one interesting take on how to show our love to one another as Jesus does.
I found an acronym that illustrates how to make this word actionable to our neighbors:
· L – Listen first
• O – Overlook faults
· V – Value one another
· E – Encourage one another
The Bible tells us, “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 NIV) The Bible also tells us to love our neighbor. But just how are we to do that?
If we are to show the love of Jesus Christ (how he loved us first) to others, then I believe that we will show the attributes of this acronym to one another. By Listening, Overlooking one another’s faults, Valuing our neighbor as human beings with their own perspectives, and Encouraging each other through Christ. By doing each of these, I believe that we not only are able to express our individual love to our neighbor, but we will also have the ability to share the love of Jesus with others as well.
Remember, Jesus Loves You and So Do I!!
Pastor Jeff