My Journey through Romans 13:8-14

What Love Is Not.

I find it fascinating that this four letter word packs so much power, yet it is so hard for many to understand its power. It is also fascinating to me that when a woman gives birth, how love is immediately manifested once that baby passes through the birth canal. The same is true for those mothers who have a C-section. Along with that love comes relief and excitement. The pain is immediately forgotten because love overshadows it. A woman has gotten through what seems like a stormy season; she is blessed and the child (someone else) is blessed that the mother had enough love to whether periods of gestation. At least that was my experience with my three gifts from the Lord. Not to mention that the five times my  “only daughter” was pregnant, I experienced having all her symptoms as though I was going through the birth with her. That was so weird to me. After each delivery, I was dead tired. She tells people that I gave birth to my grandchildren. 😛  Perhaps, I should have stayed out of the birthing room.

Eve was also excited when she bare Cain, she told Adam, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” After the birth of my first child, I said ‘Lord have mercy, look ____ (ex’s name), we have a baby boy’, and that baby boy is still close to me til this day at the age of 35. I am blessed. He thinks he is my father now. I was really excited and felt an immediate need to protect him as with all my children I bore.

I hate to admit this, but I feel I must. Some people who knew me years ago, knew how I felt about children at that time. Before I had my first child, I did not have a liking for children because they seemed like little pests to me. I had no inkling of what love was for children. Praise the Lord, I now know. God showed us firsthand what love is in Genesis 1:27 –So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. I believe if He had not love, we would not exist. As a matter of fact, everything that He has done and continues to do is out of love for us all. A main point about the word love is this: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

In verse eight (8) the love Paul speaks of is not of that much difference than the love we have for our own family members. He had learned from experience and from Jesus that we are to “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” We know that love fulfills the law; so where do we understand it more? It is here in  1 Corinthians 13.  

We know from experience that it is hard for us to love others as God intends for us to love. For whatever reason, a lot of us just don’t have love for others.  Some of us even hate our family members. We as Believer’s/Christians need to keep searching our hearts like we search for stuff on the internet. Search until we find the love that overshadows our dislike for others and for family members.

Yes, people are full of disappointments and hurt which appears to be a given for us. Make no mistake it is not love itself that does those things to us. Let me prove my point. Can you imagine how God felt when His son died on the cross for our sins? People. Can you imagine how God felt when Adam and Eve whom He created sinned against Him? People. Can you imagine how He felt when Satan turned against Him? Yes, People. Can you imagine how He felt when He had Moses lead His children out of Egypt and they turned on Him? People. I think our problem with love is that most of us don’t place an emphasis on what love is not. And now, since we have the basics of what love for others really is, let us move forward to knowing what love is not for others. They are found in verses 9-10 of this chapter.

Love is Not:

• Committing Adultery/Betrayal against one in a marriage

• Killing another for any reason

• Stealing from others

• Lying on and for others

• Desiring what others have

• Harboring hate for others in your heart

• Treating others with hostility/ill-will

• Ignoring and neglecting to fulfill the law of God

Is it safe to say that at some point in all of our lives that we have shown and still show what love is not? Yes. I repeat, we most assuredly have a problem with knowing what love is not. Jesus is returning, though we know not the day. Hence, time is upon us to work at showing what love is not for all. This is why I believe Paul goes on to alert us in verses 11-14-“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

Besides, hating others is a sin that leads to other sins. Believe it. Stop looking at the world through rose colored glasses. In 1 John 3:9-11 we are reminded that “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

May we all understand this message of what love is not by waking up from our “works of darkness” and putting on our “armour of light.”  Lord, help us in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for stopping in. Be blessed. Enjoy the quotes.