God's Last Words

LOVE IS HABIT FORMING!  
John 13: 34-35

Love takes many forms. For me the greatest example of human love is the relationships I see between older married folks – love that has grown and translated into physical caring for each other and represents the evolution of romantic love into a mature respect, kindness, and sharing. Love that has become a habit.

Answers.com defines a habit as a behavior that a person does that becomes almost an involuntary or automatic action and may be hard to stop or avoid. Habits can be good for you and they can be bad for you.

Years ago when the western U.S. was being settled, roads were often just wagon tracks. These rough trails posed serious problems for those who journeyed on them. On one of these winding paths was posted a sign which read: "Avoid this rut or you'll be in it for the next 25 miles!"

A habit is something you can do without thinking, which is why most of us develop so many of them. Habits can help us be healthy or they can destroy our health. Bad habits can take a toll.

A lady walked up to wrinkled little old man rocking in a chair on his porch. "I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret to a long happy life?"

"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I drink a case of whiskey a week, eat oily foods, and never exercise." "That's amazing," the lady said. "How old are you?' "Twenty-six," he said.

Love can be a habit too. Caring for others can be cultivated and usually begins at home where it is taught as a part of life.

One day in a supermarket, Kurtis the stock boy, was busy working when a new voice came over the intercom asking for a carry out at register 4.

Kurtis was almost finished, and wanted to get some fresh air, and decided to answer the call. As he approached the check-out stand a distant smile caught his eye, the new check out girl was beautiful. She was an older woman (maybe 26, and he was only 22) and he fell in love.

Later that day, after his shift was over, he waited by the punch clock to find out her name. She came into the break room, smiled softly at him, took her card and punched out, then left. He looked at her card to see the name Brenda.

Next day, he waited outside as she left the supermarket, and offered her a ride home. He looked harmless enough, she thought, and she accepted. When he dropped her off, he asked if maybe he could see her again, outside of work.

She declined and simply said it wasn’t possible. He pressed and she explained she had two children and she couldn’t afford a baby-sitter, so he offered to pay for the baby-sitter. Reluctantly she accepted his offer for a date for the following Saturday.

That Saturday night he arrived at her door only to have her tell him that she was unable to go with him. The baby-sitter had called and canceled. To which Kurtis simply said, "Well, let’s take the kids with us." She tried to explain that taking the children was not an option, but again not taking no for an answer, he pressed.

Finally Brenda, brought him inside to meet her children. She had an older daughter who was just as cute as a bug, Kurtis thought, then Brenda brought out her son, who was in a wheelchair. He was born a paraplegic with Down syndrome. Kurtis asked Brenda, "I still don’t understand why the kids can’t come with us?"

Brenda was amazed. Most men would run away from a woman with two kids, especially if one had disabilities. Just like her husband and father of her children had.

That evening Kurtis and Brenda loaded up the kids, went to dinner and the movies.

When her son needed anything Kurtis would take care of him. When he needed to use the rest room, he picked him up out of his chair, took him, brought him back. The kids loved Kurtis. At the end of the evening, Brenda knew this was the man she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life with.

A year later, they were married and Kurtis went on to adopt both of her children. Since then they have added two more children to the family.

So what happened to the stock boy and check out girl? Well, Mr. & Mrs. Kurt Warner, live in St. Louis, where he had been employed by the St. Louis Rams and played quarterback. He was selected Most Valuable Player of the National Football League a few years ago and has played in the Super Bowl.

LET me give you 7 reasons to develop the habit of love:

1. LOVING ONE ANOTHER REFLECTS CHRIST: (John 13: 34-35) Jesus told us:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

2. LOVING ONE ANOTHER COMPLETES THE LAW: (Rom 13: 8-9) "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law." The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Don’t do this kind of love though: "Dearest Jimmy, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie... P.S., And congratulations on winning the state lottery."

3. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS A RESULT OF SALVATION: (1 Peter 1: 22-23) “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

4. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY: (1 John 3: 10) This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: “Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:11 NIV)

“A Childs Letter to God: Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in my family and I can’t do it. Signed: Nan”

5. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS A COMMANDMENT: (1 John 3: 23) “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

6. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS RESPONSIVE TO GOD’S LOVE: (1 John 4: 7-11)

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

“Love is more than a characteristic of God; it is His character.” Love is how we know God and encourages our understanding, in human terms, what His Will and purpose for us is.

7. LOVING ONE ANOTHER PROVES GOD’S EXISTENCE: (1 John 4: 12) “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

Humanity learned love from God – it is counter survival and evolutionary theory – so it’s not something that’s natural despite what you think – we are selfish not loving. We must learn to love.

Do you cultivate the habits of love?

While I say I have troubling liking a lot of my fellow humans because of their behavior in the ways they treat, manipulate, and deceive others I can honestly say that God desires that no one may perish. I can’t judge them but I can warn them and show them the truth of Jesus and His Holy Gospel. I can pray for them to see Jesus as truth.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor as you act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."

What does your love say about your commitment to God? Amen.