What does love look like?

Hosea 11:1-4

What does love look like?  I'm not talking about the so-called love of this culture, where it becomes the word for like; I love beef, I love diamonds, your hair, your car, your dress, your house, and baseball, football, basketball, and the list keeps going.  I'm not talking about the kind of love of a parent, for I have seen parents who did not show love to their children, I could tell you about Jane, not her real name, whose mother gave her away at the age of five so life would be easier for the mother.  I could tell you about many a son and daughter whose parents both worked and never had time to show any leadership or direction to their children, and yet they would tell you they loved them.  As I've stated often, we have a poor understanding of the word love, so when told by Jesus that these are two of the greatest commandments found in Mark 12:28-31, love God with all that is in you, your mind, will, and emotions and love your neighbor as yourself!

Self always takes a backseat to love, and the best example is what God has done for you and me found in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."  The Creator of life, all life, of all that is are will be, knowing full well before Creation that man would reject Love, and still Jesus created man!  Not only did He make us He was willing at the proper time, not ours, but the Father's to step out of being worshipped, take the form of a baby born to a young girl named Mary who was a virgin and knew no man, till after the birth of Jesus.  Love puts the object of its love first!  When one of us encounters love we have no doubt that we are loved.  So the question must be asked, is self-driving you, or is it in the backseat of your life?

This is what the LORD is saying about Israel; "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.  The more they were called, the more they went away, they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offering to idols.  Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.  I led them with cords of kindness, with bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and bent down to them and fed them."

Often in Scripture the LORD is sharing what He has done and how we reacted, that is what is taking place in verses 1-4.  Hosea is making a statement that God is love, the apostle John makes a strong case for this in 1 John 4:7-8, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God, and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love."  I would encourage you to keep reading the remainder of chapter four, for it expresses what God has done for each of us.

The father also brought His Son Jesus out of Egypt as a faithful Son who did His will.  But Israel was brought out of captivity but selected to be a slave to sin.  Each of us gets to make that choice each day, so choose love, for it covers a lot of sins.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice