True Love
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: True Love------------------------------------------- Date: 05/09/2000
Keywords:
"love"
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temptation.
Passage: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3*
1. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have
love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and
all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I
am nothing.
3. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I
deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Questions
1. What are your ambitions? Without love added to them, what will be
the benefit to yourself of accomplishing your goals?
2. This passage is not speaking about a "feeling" called
love. How would you describe the love discussed here to someone else?
Practical help
The most common word in the three verses above is not
"love", but "I" (used 7 times). We are all very in to ourselves and
love needs to break through.
Whoever you are and whatever you want in life, without love added to
it, you will be incomplete. Without this kind of love you will not live up to your truest
potential. The Bible calls us to substitute "I" – what’s in it for us
– with love as the center of our attention.
Note that this love is not something you grow or work on, instead
you must receive it – it is something you need to "have" or
"possess." Where do you find it? 1 John 4:8 says that "God is love."
Substitute the word "God" for the word "love" in the passage above and
read it again.
Now what is our best proof that this is true about God -- that He is
love? Sometimes it doesn't feel this way. Go to the most quoted passage in the Bible, John
3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." The death of Jesus on the
cross is the greatest proof I will ever have that God loves me. The same is true for you.
The idea of love has been corrupted to mean a stimulating feeling.
You can be "stimulated" by pornography, but it is not true love. In our attempts
to feel loved by others, we manipulate the circumstances to get them to love us. This is
using others to make us feel better. But true love is recognizing you are valuable to God
and with this knowledge, you decide to live a life pleasing to Him. In doing this you
choose to truly love and respect others – to think of others before your own needs.
Internet pornography is not consistent with loving God, loving yourself and truly loving
others.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."