Real Church Part 4 “Real Love” Traditional Service Livestream

I thought I was in love. Turns out I wasn’t. She was a girl in my second-grade class, and I was smitten, at least for a while. Nothing ever came of it, of course, mainly because she never knew how I felt because I never said a word. Life moved on and I got over it. But I still remember.

There are all kinds of ways to describe love:

True love

Unrequited love

Romantic love

Platonic love

Puppy love

Familial love

Unconditional love

Pure love

Self-love

When we read the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, most of us assume that it’s an explanation of all kinds of love. That is not true. It is an interpretation of only one kind of love: love at its highest and best.

When Paul notes three things that are most important, he puts love at the top of the list.

When Jesus condenses the entirety of the law into one statement he says, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and your neighbor as yourself”.

We all long to love and be loved.

Paul makes a list of what love is not, followed by a list of what real love is and what it does. What we search for and thirst for in life is real love. Not entertainment, or material possessions but the real deal, genuine, authentic, God inspired and God given love.

Where does that kind of love come from?

Real love comes from God.

Real love is shared by those who know and experience God’s love.

Oh yeah, the girl in my second-grade class? Her name was Mary.