Love is basic to the Christian life. What is love? The Apostle of Love is John. 1 Jn 4:7-8 says love comes from God. We don’t define love; God does. God gets to decide, and we must submit to His will. Agree and obey, or disagree and disobey. 1 Jn 4:9 – God sent His one and only Son. Atoning sacrifice = a stand in for us. The Father, in His passion, sent the Son, and the Son willingly obeyed in His love for the Father and us.

“Love Hurts” was a song by the group Nazareth. It’s true; it does hurt. Love requires sacrifice and puts others first. If we haven’t sacrificed, it’s not love. Another group, Foreigner, said in the lyrics of one of their popular songs: “I want to know what love is.” Lou (the writer of the song) is now a Christian and knows what love is: I Jn. 3:16-17. If love lives in us, we will sacrifice for others. Love and truth go together (v. 18). Love isn’t love; God is love. He gets to define it. We don’t know what love is without Jesus. It is defined by “God’s character revealed in His commands and manifested personally by Jesus.”

In the book of John, the author refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Maybe he didn’t start out being so loving and lovable. James and John were very competitive early on. Jesus called them “sons of thunder.” In Luke 9:54, they asked if they should call down fire to consume their enemies. Later, they learned love.

Are we forgetting the love God gave us and letting our love grow cold? It makes it very difficult to love others if we aren’t getting that love from God. Where are you as far as loving your family, co-workers, and others?

Rev. 1:9-18, when John was in prison at the island of Patmos, he had a vision of the glorified Jesus and what he said to the early churches. Acts 20:29-, Paul warns of the danger to come, both outside and inside the Church. Rev. 2:1f: Ephesus Church, had forsaken its first love. Jesus walked among the church there as He does in our church today through His Spirit. He will never leave or forsake us! Rev. 2:2, He knows our deeds and hard work (to the point of exhaustion), but we must not compromise to the ways of the world. We must be gallant and courageous not to say “yes” to things. It will be a challenge to us to say no to what the world says is good that is ungodly. We will be in the minority. The Ephesians fought, but they were tired and grew weary. When we hear “Love is love,” “this is my truth,” and other sayings of today, we must say no. Have you forgotten why you are here? To proclaim the Gospel of Jesus! We must stand on the truth and have the love of God in our hearts. God must be our first love.

What is occupying your mind, money, time? It must be about a relationship with God and NOT rules. Truth without love is not good. We must proclaim God’s Word the way it is; we are not God. Let’s not fall in love with causes. Let’s fall in love with Jesus. If something else is before God, we must repent. It must be about the LOVE of Jesus. Rev. 2:5: The Ephesians fell and needed to repent. We must also recognize when our love has grown cold. Do we still have that passion and enthusiasm for Christ? Are you desperate for God? We need to get back to our first love. Ps. 42:1-2 says his soul pants for God. He is passionate for us; we need to be passionate for Him. God sings over us. Rev. 2:7 says we must hear what God says to us.

Challenge: If you have left your first love, you need to repent and do what you did at first.