Who Do You Love?

By Pastor Gabe Southards, Head of Tennessee Baptist Church

February is the month of love. On the 14th day of this month people will sometimes go to great lengths to show their wife, husband, girlfriend, or boyfriend how much they love them. There will be flowers, cards, gifts, candy, you name it, given to those significant others, all in the name of love! But, for every person that gives a gift of love, there will be many more who won’t. Either because they have “lost that loving feeling” as the song says, or, they don’t have anyone to give to, or they just forgot that it was February 14th! The end of all of this is that someone is happy, at least for a little while because of the gift they received, or they continue to be sad because they have nobody, or they’re in trouble because they forgot!

It seems that people, in general, really don’t understand what real love is. And I think that the reason for this is found in the answer to this question, “Who do you love?”

The Bible says in 1 John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loved us.” Also, in that same chapter in verse 10, it says “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. The word “propitiation” literally means “atoning sacrifice, or payment”. So, real love involves sacrifice…it involves a giving of yourself for another.

In John 3:16, the Bible says, “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.”

You see, real love is sacrificial. It has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of gift you can buy at a store. You give of yourself. And that giving is not so you might receive something in return, but just because you love. The world’s idea of love is a “do this for that” kind of love. In other words, I’ll love you if you continue to do _____ for me. Well, that’s not how God meant for love to be. God is the ultimate example of love. As a matter of fact, the Bible declares in 1 John 4:8 that “God IS love…”, and His example of love is found in the fact that He gave His dear Son for you and me! The Greatest Compassion ever shown was the love of God that sent us a Saviour!

The Greatest Commandment ever given was to love God who sent us a Saviour!

And the Greatest Cause on earth is to promote the love of God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ!

The problem we have today in this world is that there are so many things that can captivate our minds and steal our hearts, that we don’t love the Lord as much as we should, and that is a tragedy! Oh, how it would teach us to love one another if we would only love God the way He loved us!

When someone mentions my wife, I think of my love for her. When someone talks about my children, I think of my love for them. When someone mentions the name of Jesus, I think about how much he loved me!

And I’m humbled when I think of how much he loved me, and yet how little I show my love for him!

Charles Spurgeon said I want to love Jesus Christ so much, that when I look up to heaven, and say, “Dear Jesus, I love you”, he’ll look down, and say, “Yes, Charles, I know it”.

The Apostle Paul said that the love of Christ constraineth me… It pushes me on… I love Jesus so much I can’t quit!

Do you realize that you won’t be in heaven one second before you will want to run to the Saviour and fall at his feet and embrace him! -- And you’ll wonder why you didn’t love him more while you were down here!

I wonder if you can say today, that come what may, ...

I will love him. I will serve him. I will not question him. And I will understand that He IS God, and above Him there is none else!

If we will love the Lord Jesus Christ the way we should love Him, We will love one another. We will serve one another. And we will do it all in the name of the love we have for Him!

So, who do you love?

Gabe Southards is the Pastor at Head of Tennessee Baptist Church located at 895 Franklin Street in Dillard, Georgia. Pastor Southards and his church are members of R4G (Rabun for the Gospel). He and his wife Misty and their children make their home in Rabun and when he is not working, you might find Pastor Gabe at work in the church, spending time with his kids or on the golf course. Head of Tennessee Baptist Church has an active youth program and is dedicated to “equipping the saints to make Jesus known to the nations!”