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A Teen For God - Chapter 22

Published at 29th of August 2019 11:37:13 AM


Chapter 22

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"Teacher," he asked, "which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: 'Love your neighbour as you love yourself." (GNT)

Matthew 22:36-40

LOVE… the supreme reason for our existence and the privileges we're open to today; what's love anyway?

Love in itself is a diverse word used to mean different things in various contexts; it could be the strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties or attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers. Better yet, it could be seen as the affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interest; warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion and also the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration. It is the unselfish, loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as the fatherly concern of God for humankind, brotherly concern for others; a person's adoration of God. Love is an action or doing word!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

John 3:16

The kind of love the Lord showers upon mankind is known as agape love. This type of love surpasses all others; it is the highest height/display of love. The kind of love between two people in a relationship is known as erotic love. It is humanly and based on human feelings. It isn't as extreme as God's love…

When you love the Lord with all your heart, soul and might, you won't have any idol either in form of physical or material gods, you'd worship Him whole heartedly not withholding any part of you from Him, you'd yearn for a personal relationship and seek that walk with Him; you'd be all out to work for Him damning all costs.

When you love your neighbour (and I don't just mean the person who stays beside your house, but that random boy or girl you see anywhere around you) as you love yourself, you won't be wicked to the person because you can't be wicked to yourself. You would not steal from the person because you won't want to be stolen from, you won't think about evil deeds towards your neighbour, you won't make fun of the person neither would you mock the person, you won't think about killing your neighbour because you won't like such done to you; you'd treat your neighbour with the same preferential treatment in which you'd do yourself.

If you've had the conception that 'hate' is antonymous to 'love', it's time to think again; for if true love like God's is about not sinning; then love can't be linked to sin in anyway, they are rather parallel; apparently, the opposite of love is sin. For anyone who has got the love of God in him/her won't wonna do anything to hurt God or a fellow human. We could then conclude that 'love' and 'sin' are antonymous, and 'hate' is just one of the many branches of sin.


Having explained what love is already, I'd just go over 'lust'. Lust in this context is an intense or unbridled sexual desire, an intense longing: craving to have an intense desire or need: to have a sexual urge. Lust is not so far from you, if you look at the opposite sex or even same sex having a sexual intense desire and different wild imaginations about you and the person together, you've lusted after the person. Matthew 5:27 & 28 says:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (NIV). This doesn't accrue to guys only, ladies too would be guilty as charged if they fall prey to this.

Is It Love Or Lust?...

love waits, lust takes…

love cares, lust dares…

love sympathises, lust criticizes…

love chooses, lust uses…

love communicates, lust manipulates…

love understands, lust makes demands…

love is kind, lust is blind…

love accepts, lust rejects…

love cries, lust lies…

love hears, lust fears…

love adores, lust keep scores…

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
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If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

It does not envy.

It does not boast; it is not proud.

It is not rude,

It is not self-seeking.

It is not easily angered.

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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away…

…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (NIV)

-1st Corinthians 13:1-8, 13

PONDER:

• Do you have the love of God in you? How do you know?

• What are some of the ways to love the Lord with all your heart, body and mind?

• What are some ways you can love your neighbour as yourself?

• For you, is it love or lust?

PROMPT:

Show love to people around you irrespective of face/who it is, give out your extra coat, dress, pen; help someone with a kind deed, reach out to those in need around you, pray for your friends and enemies too.




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