True Love

What people consider to be true love may differ from person to person. Some people may regard the love that parents show toward their children as the greatest love, while others may think that the love between lovers or between husband and wife is true love. Since so many people in this world live in so many different places and in so many different ways, the forms of true love that each person thinks of also cannot help but be diverse... However, to say it in one word, the reason human love can never be perfect love is that human beings are imperfect beings, each having their own weaknesses (Hebrews 7:28). On the other hand, the Bible tells us that perfect love does exist. It is the love of God. Because God is perfect (Matthew 5:48), His love also must be perfect (1 John 4:16-18). Therefore, the apostle John testified that God Himself is love.

1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

And the One in whom this perfect love was manifested to us is Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus is the perfect love of God. This true love was manifested to us while we were still sinners, in order to save us.

1 John 4:9-10 “9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Therefore, to us, perfect true love is Jesus alone. Jesus is the One who, while we were yet sinners—that is, while we were enemies (Romans 5:10)—died for us and personally proved how much God loves us. Now there is no greater love than this for us.

John 15:13-14 “13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

In this way, Jesus laid down His life for us. By doing so, He made us, who had become enemies of God because of our sins, one with God again in peace, and He opened for us a new and living way by which we may come unto God through Jesus.

Ephesians 2:14-18 “14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:... 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

Hebrews 10:19-20 “19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”

Because we have received the grace of being able to come unto God through Jesus, who is the true love of God, it is only right that we should live all the more by the name of Jesus. This is because, through the name of Jesus, which is the Father’s name, Jesus becomes one with us in love.

John 17:26 “And I have declared unto them thy name (=Jesus; John 5:43), and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

1 John 5:11-13 “11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God (=Jesus; Matthew 1:21); that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”

Therefore, when we live by the name of Jesus—that is, when we love Jesus—Jesus, who is true love and eternal life, will be with us. For this reason, our lives must become lives in which we do all things, whether in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17).

John 14:14-15, 21 “14If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. 15If ye love me, keep my commandments. 21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

John 16:24 “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Proverbs 8:17 “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”

Truly, if we believe in the name of Jesus and love one another, just as Jesus loved us while we were yet sinners, then surely Jesus will grant what we ask, and He will always abide in us.

1 John 3:21-24 “21Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 23And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

Amen.