The Problem with Love

We can sarcastically say “I love you” and mean something else. We might say “I love you” out of social courtesy, because the words are expected. We have a God-given appetite for love and appreciation, which isn’t easily satisfied. If it were, so many marriages wouldn’t end in divorce.

Loving is often for getting, not giving.

In my human nature, I wasn’t inclined to love anything that wouldn’t love me back. I didn’t know I needed the God nature of unconditional love for others, even my enemies. Why would I do that? Without God’s Spirit living within me, I wouldn’t do that, because it makes no sense.

God’s love is unconditional giving.

His love is entirely contrary to the love of flesh that Adam acquired in the garden of Eden. Adam made a conscious choice for self instead of God. Why? Because Eve was part of his “self,” bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. That love was not God’s love, because it was self-serving. God’s love is self-sacrificing. We need to understand why God’s nature is better, or we won’t go his way.

I can satisfy my appetite for love only by recognizing, accepting, and experiencing the kind of love that God has. How do I do that? By loving others. To do that, I need the same Spirit that Jesus had from birth. I must be born again, not of the human spirit but of God’s Spirit.

Jesus said, “This is my commandment: love others as I have loved you. There is no greater love than for a man to sacrifice his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do all that I instruct you to do.” — John 15:12–14, The Discussion Bible

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This topic is covered more thoroughly in the online book From Birth to Transformation. Click Here. The first three episodes are free, and “The Problem with Love” is the first episode.