SEVEN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS OF
EVERGREEN
LOVE
BIBLE TEXT: 1st Corinthians 13:13 - And now these three
remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The greatest
thing that can happen to man is to find true agape love. And all praises be to
God, we have found this in God and Jesus. Remember Jeremiah 31:3 - “The Lord
appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Out of all the characteristics of
Christianity, Jesus rated the display of love as the best means of evangelism;
no wonder, He mentioned in John 13:35
that, “your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my
disciples.” If we exercise faith, dramatize hope and show forth joy and
happiness, and have no love, it is meaningless. If we give all our possession
to the poor, if we are early arrivals to church and we are the last to leave,
even if we give our bodies to be burnt and we have no love, it profits nothing.
Exercising true and genuine love to all and
sundry is the greatest virtue of Christianity. Pray for it and God will give it
to you. If you cannot preach, sing, or give bible studies, and you have the
gift of true and genuine love, God will use you to bring so many people to His
kingdom. There are seven essential ingredients of agape love that the Holy
Spirit has impressed on my heart; To the married and the non-married, pray that these will begin to manifest in
your relationships:
- If
it is necessary each must be willing to die for the other. In John 10:18, Jesus said: “No one
can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the
authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For
this is what my Father has commanded." Be voluntarily willing to lay
down your life for your partner.
- Agape
Love gives and gives and gives without expecting any reward to the point
that what you are giving must pinch you. - John
3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten son. Give what is most precious to you as a gift to your
spouse-Your heart.
- It must be unconditional. It is not based on anything you
are or have. God
loves us not because of the benefits He will derive from us. Hence, He
said in Psalm 50:
9-13: I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand
hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields
are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine,
and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of
goats? If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and
everything in it.
- It
is everlasting – Jeremiah 31:3-I
have loved you with an everlasting
- It does not
seek for revenge or retaliation. Exodus 14:14: “The LORD himself will
fight for you. Just stay calm."
- It
possesses all the Godly virtues of ideal relationships. 1st Corinthians 13:4-8
underscore that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does
not boast, it is not proud. It does not
dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it
keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with
the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.
- It
is not a feeling or affection from the head, rather, it is a feeling or
affection from the heart
In conclusion, this is a story of a
young couple. The girl has a deficiency; the family members, friends and
well-wishers tried to dissuade the young man from marrying the girl but he was
very intractable. With the intensity of the pressure from different quarters,
this young man insisted he was going to marry this young girl. They married,
and today they are happily married, the girl’s deficiency notwithstanding.
