THE POWER OF LOVE # 3

THE POWER OF LOVE !!!!!!!

#  1  > Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. ( 1  CORINTHIANS  13:1__3 ).
The term "love" brings up all sorts of ideas in our widely mixed Western world. The media tend to picture love with desire and feelings and most often promote an equation of love with lovemaking__especially when love is the result of chemistry that bursts into passionate magic. Most of today's thriving online matchmaking services market their brand of "happily ever after" using personality tests or compatibility pairing__and all of them brag about their success rates.Speed-dating services and companies like It's Just Lunch__along with Zoosk, Our Time, ChristianMingle, SingleParent-Meet.com and a host of others__promise to find love for you with "that special someone."  

#  2 eHarmony alone has more than 15 million members and Match.com has more than 21 million. One reliable source estimates that the dating industry brings in over one billion dollars in revenue each year in the U.S. alone, and the average client spends well over two hundred dollars per year to find the "right person." Reasonable, you might say, if real love is found. It is interesting to note, however, that although the Bible does validate physical lovemaking in marriage as the purpose and design of the Creator, the concept of recreational sex outside of marriage is never promoted in Scripture__all promiscuous, premarital, and extramarital sex is strictly forbidden. Biblical love is based on a much different premise.
When reciprocated, agape love produces a bond that is almost impossible to break.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand the focus that God requires in a love relationship ( both in marriage and in friendship ) is to note the play on words in the interaction between the Lord Jesus and Pete after the resurrection.

3 - The apostles met with the LORD on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus asked Peter if he "loved" Him. Jesus used the word agapao. Peter responded with phileo. The interchange in John  21:15__17 runs like this: 
Jesus: "Do you LOVE Me?"
Peter: "Yes, Lord, You know I LIKE You."
Jesus: "Feed My lambs."

Jesus: "Do you LOVE Me?"
Peter: "Yes, Lord, You know I LIKE You."
Jesus: "Tend My sheep."

Jesus: "Do you LIKE Me?"
Peter: "You know that I LIKE You!"
Jesus: "Feed My sheep."

These two words are at the heart of the human problem. God's love__the love that God exercised when He "gave His only begotten Son"__was agape love. That kind of love is unilateral. That kind of love is a promise from the giver to the receiver with a mental commitment to continue that love without regard to circumstances, feelings, or reciprocation. When reciprocated, agape love produces a bond that is almost impossible to break.