{"id":13885,"date":"2017-02-02T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=13885"},"modified":"2017-03-01T14:47:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T18:47:01","slug":"theres-no-i-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=13885","title":{"rendered":"There’s No “I” in “LOVE”!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The signboard said…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

THERE’S<\/span><\/p>\n

NO “I” IN<\/span><\/p>\n

“LOVE”!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

OK…. maybe a little corny and trite.\u00a0 Maybe a bit too much along the lines of the classic message that says “WHAT’S MISSING IN CH\u00a0\u00a0 CH?<\/span><\/strong>”\u00a0 (if you need the answer… “U R” missing…).<\/p>\n

But, can love be truly selfless?\u00a0 Don’t you have to love yourself before you can love others?\u00a0 And don’t you have to think of yourself before you can love yourself???<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t
A husband and wife once had to testify about a door-to-door scammer during a proceeding in a municipal court.\u00a0 Just like the traditional scene on TV, the judge asked the couple to raise one hand and place the other on a Bible.\u00a0 He then proceeded with the usual oath:\u00a0 “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The couple- in unison- then responded “We Do!”\u00a0 Instead of two staggered repetitions of “I Do”, the couple responded as one: “We Do.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The judge and couple had to chuckle at the “cuteness” of the scene, but obviously this couple considered themselves to be a package deal instead of two individuals.<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love Your Neighbor \/ Love Yourself…<\/span><\/h3>\n

In Matthew 22, some Pharisees tried to test Jesus by asking Him, “what is the greatest commandment in the law?”\u00a0 Here’s His answer (Matthew 22:37-39):<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the first and greatest commandment.\u00a0 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”\u00a0 You might be thinking that\u00a0 if you’re going to love your neighbor (or love God for that matter), you have to start out by loving yourself.\u00a0 Maybe the progression is to love yourself, then love your neighbor, and then you’ll naturally love God.\u00a0 LOVE starts with “I” ???<\/p>\n

But that’s not what Jesus said.\u00a0 He said the first step is to love God with all you’ve got.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love Starts with God…
\n <\/span><\/h3>\n

The Apostle John, in his letters, told us a lot about Love, but he didn’t say a word about “Ilove.” \u00a0 Here’s what he wrote in 1 John 4:7-10…<\/p>\n

\n

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.\u00a0 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

True love is totally tied to God.\u00a0 You can’t have any love in you unless God put it there.\u00a0 You don’t love God because you force yourself to do it.\u00a0 Loving God isn’t a New Year’s Resolution.\u00a0 Love originates from God, not from self.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And beyond that, even God’s love is selfless.\u00a0 He sent His one and only Son so that we could be forgiven.\u00a0 Jesus’ sacrifice connects us to the the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit brings us to God and gives us the ability to love.\u00a0 We humans are kinda out of the loop in that progression!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to Love God<\/span><\/h3>\n

OK.\u00a0 God put love into us.\u00a0 But what’s that mean?\u00a0 How do we love God?\u00a0 John had quite a bit to say about that question too.\u00a0 Here’s 2 John verse 6…<\/p>\n

\n

\n And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To love God, we have to WALK in obedience to His commands.\u00a0 Not just grudgingly do a good deed now and then.\u00a0 Not just to do a random act of kindness or to drop a bit extra in the offering plate. \u00a0\u00a0 In order to love God, we are called to be like Him.\u00a0 God’s sanctifying grace constantly molds us into His image.\u00a0 God’s love for us shows us how to love others (and ourselves).\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Loving Yourself<\/span><\/h3>\n

Walking in God’s commands does mean that you need to recognize the investment God has made in you.\u00a0 Remember these words from Psalm 139…<\/p>\n

\n

1. O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. <\/span>
\n 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. <\/span><\/p>\n

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.<\/span>
\n 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, <\/span>I know that full well. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

God knows\u00a0 you.\u00a0 God has invested in you.\u00a0 God loves you.\u00a0 That means that you do need to love yourself too.\u00a0 But if you love yourself without basing that love on the way God values you, you’re headed in the wrong direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There’s no “I” in “Love”!<\/span><\/h3>\n

Love has to start without “I”.\u00a0 In order to love God by taking on His attributes, we have to begin by letting go of our own self interests. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We are<\/em> called to love ourselves and to recognize our value to God.\u00a0 But this love isn’t based on our own accomplishments or on our own righteousness. It’s totally based on the fact that God loves us.\u00a0 If we’re good enough for God, we must be good enough for ourselves!\u00a0 By loving God, we love ourselves.\u00a0 Ironically, the more selfless we become, the more we can love ourselves.<\/p>\n

To love (God, neighbors, or ourselves) we’ve got to take on that same “package deal” mentality that the municipal court couple had.\u00a0 Recognize that love comes from God, and not from self.\u00a0 Love doesn’t happen with just “I.”\u00a0 Love flows out when we allow God’s Spirit to flow in.\u00a0 Love is a partnership with the One who is Love.<\/p>\n

LOVE doesn’t start with\u00a0 “I”!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The signboard said… THERE’S NO “I” IN “LOVE”!     OK…. maybe a little corny and trite.\u00a0 Maybe a bit too much along the lines of the classic message that says “WHAT’S MISSING IN CH\u00a0\u00a0 CH?”\u00a0 (if you need the answer… “U R” missing…). But, can love be truly selfless?\u00a0 Don’t you have to love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-13885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-signboard","tag-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13885"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13909,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13885\/revisions\/13909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}