“Greater Love Has No One Than This: To Lay Down One’s Life For One’s Friends.” – John 15:13
February is the month when love becomes a sales pitch. More candy, flowers, and Hallmark cards will be sold during this month than at any other time of the year. But, how many people have taken time to really pray and reflect on what true love is? The sad truth is that many are seeking love but have no idea what authentic love looks like. Some have even been so disappointed that they’ve given up on true love completely and are settling for what they call, “friends with benefits.”
Dionne Warwick used to sing a song that said; “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love; no not just for some but for everyone.
The truth is that the world still needs love and tragically many people are accepting a false substitute for real love. The phrase, “friends with benefits” represents a profound contradiction to what the Bible says a friend is; and what love and sex should be.
Three Essential Elements of Genuine Love & Friendship
Holy Scripture outlines three essential elements of genuine love and real friendship:
1. Commitment – Our culture is commitment adverse. We want privileges without responsibilities. As a result, we have trivialized sex into a series of recreational encounters for the sole purpose of personal pleasure. With this mindset, people are used and then discarded. We want friends with benefits but no commitments. Compare that attitude to what the Bible says about love and sex.
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:6-7)
2. Sacrifice – Many people have confused love with selfishness. When that happens we tend to treat others as objects designed to bring us satisfaction, rather than persons created in the image of God. True love is both an attitude and an act of giving. We give of ourselves in a committed relationship and do so unconditionally.
“For God so loved the world that He gave…” (John 3:16)
3. Intimacy – One of the things that we all have in common is the deep-seated need for intimacy. Intimacy means to – “into me see” or “see into me”. Intimacy is only found in a relationship where there is trust and transparency. That is why casual sexual encounters are to be avoided. True intimacy takes time and effort. A relationship must be developed. Individuals need to grow together and learn about their partners. Ultimately, the couple needs to make a commitment to God and one another in-order to experience true intimacy.
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners
Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
And finallly, my prayer for you is that you will never give up on true love. God has designed us to love and to be loved and nothing less will ultimately satisfy. During this month we should take some quiet time, pray, and study what God says about love. It begins by knowing that God loves each of us, completely and unconditionally. That reality leads us to understand that since God loves us, we must love ourselves. When we are confident of God’s love for us and committed to loving ourselves, then we will love others and only accept true love from others. No substitutes!
Peace & Blessing!
Pastor, W. Darin Moore
**Pastor Moore will share a specific topic each month with the Greater Centennial congregation.
Please submit all questions for Pastor's Blog, "Moore Moments'' by the10th of each month to pastorsblog@greatercentennial.org ."
