A reiterated point

Don't you just love it when people harp on a point you try to make once or twice? That's pretty much what happened at bible talk tonight. The usual bible talk leader--Edgardo Mejia--wonderful friend and awesome roommate--was out of town visiting family. So the equally wonderful and awesome brother-of-mine Jonathan Luu led bible talk. He talked about a different angle of the same thing I posted here not too long ago. Love.
Love is a rather vast point, is it not? Very complicated, very hard to understand, almost impossible to take control of. However, there is one avenue that can be mastered, if taken on in the right manner.

Matthew 22:37-39 says this: Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."

In one of my earlier posts I briefly mentioned Luke 13:26, which--paraphrased--says that in order to be a true disciple of Christ you must love God soo much, it can be like you hate everyone and everything around you in comparison. This verse--Matthew 22--kinda reiterates that a little bit. But then it goes on and says to love your neighbor as yourself. Everyone can admit they love themselves just a little bit--the overexaggeration of that is selfishness. So to love your neighbor is the opposite of that--complete selflessness. Some other people in the bible talk, when asked, said that what it means to love your neighbor--love others, essentially--is to be thoughtful of them, to think about them all the time, and to let them know that. Another person said that it means being sacrificial--that you would do anything for that person to let them know how much you really care. Amen to that one.

1 Corinthians 13:13--And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Why does it say that the greatest is love? What makes love so great? Think about it--can there be faith or hope without love? Can faith or hope do anything without love putting it into action? Love is the action behind it all. You show your faith by your deeds--love. You show there is hope by loving. It's glue.
To help bring that point home, is 1 John 3:18--Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
aka--you can say wat u want all day, but in the end, what are you really doing? are you living what you're saying? You can say you really love somone, but are you really showing them that love in what you do with them? Are you giving to them, are you sacrificing for them, are you thinking about them? Are you going out of your way to make their day better?
And no, I'm not even talking about a special someone--someone you would call "pookie." This can be a complete stranger even, depending on your heart and mind are. So next time you have the opportunity to show someone that love that never gets shown--the ultimate love--God love--are you going to let it shine, or are you going to be too afraid that they might think you're weird or crazy?

Luckily there's a remedy for that! 1 John 4:18--There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.

If you love God, as Jesus commanded, and you love your neighbor--others--as Jesus commanded multiple times--then you don't have to worry about fear. Talking to someone and letting them know what that love is really like shouldn't be based on the fear of rejection or a fallen reputation.

1 John 2:10--Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

This is even more emphasis on the point that if you truly love God, you'll love others, because he commanded it--and because you love him. John 14:21--Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. So now it's even clearer than before! If you truly love God, you'll obey his commands, which is to love others!! This is soo awesome to me!

So now that that's settled...what do you think you could do to "infuse,"--as my brother put it--the light into your relationships? What will be your anchor for being that example to others, for showing the light in your relationships?
I don't know about you, but I'm going to be showing hope for what I live for in how I interact with other people--1 Peter 3:15 says to always be prepared to answer for the hope you have--I'm going to live that out. And James 1:2--i'm going to be joyful, even through trials, because they produce perseverance, which leads to maturity, which will help me in the end be in the light and help me to be motivated to show others the love that I have for God and for everyone i talk to as a result! I could also take the route of my best friend--which is parallel to James 1:2--I could just be hyper and happy and "full of sunshine." I can be positive in everything. I can sacrifice myself for my friends--and do it with a smile on my face.

Live every day in love. There's no need to hate poeple or hold grudges against them. Especially if they're in the Kingdom. We need to be unified, guys!

I love all of you--and this is the absolute truth! Any of you can ask me to do something in all seriousness, and I'll do it for you.
Disclaimer: this point and explanations were taken from Bible Talk earlier tonight, and the subject came from Jonathan Luu--I did not make any of this up. I put my opinions in and among the points, but I give credit where credit is due.