Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. Ephesians 5:25
Think about the love of a husband for a wife, or the love of a mother for a child, or the love that binds people together in friendship. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Where love flows, hearts are filled. Where love is withheld, hearts are broken. Perhaps you grew up surrounded by love. Loyalty and affection were modelled for you. Your life was shaped by that experience. Or maybe you had a different experience. The question in your mind and heart is, How can I give what I did not receive?
Some are blessed to enjoy a happy and loving marriage. Others wish that gift would be given to them. Some, whether married or single, find themselves asking, Am I the kind of person who is able to love another person well?
We need to recover the lost art of loving well—loving well in friendship, loving well in family, loving well those who have hurt us, and loving God well. How do we learn the art of loving well? Here’s the place to begin: “We love because [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
“God is love” (1 John 4:8). If you know God, you know love. If you have God, you have love. If God filled you, love would fill you. So if you want to love well, you need to find God.
What has been your greatest experience of love? What has been your greatest disappointment?
