Christians have been charged to bring love into all situations they find themselves in life no matter the pains, brokenness, and disappointments they may experience in their day-to-day dealings with men.
Giving the admonition on Sunday in a special Valentine’s day message titled ‘Finding God in Your Weaknesses’, Pastor Tunde Akinyemi, Director of Operations for Africa, Kingsword Ministries International also said the three-dimensions of love is God loving us, we loving him back and then on our part, demonstrating love to others.
The cleric who based his teachings on 1 Peter 4 verses 8-1 also gave the examples of Bible patriarchs such as Joseph and King David who showed love to others despite being betrayed.
“A lot of teachings in the Bible, apart from revealing God’s love to us by Christ dying for us, a lot of the teachings are you loving other people. What the Bible is trying to show is for us to express it, letting love flow in that direction by us loving other people.
“In the first service, somebody said her Valentine’s day was boring. I am sure that the person is speaking from the context of nobody gave her flowers or gifts. That is not primarily what the Bible teaches when it talks about love. A lot of the teachings are not about people giving us flowers or gifts; it is about us loving other people.
“We must be grounded in the dimension of God loving us; we must also be grounded in the dimension of loving God back as well as the dimension of us loving other people. It is also important that we understand the context of the ‘full spectrum of love’.
“In the English language, you just have one language for love. In Greek, there are five different words used to describe love and it is for a specific purpose because when we talk about love, we are not just talking about a context of a man loving a woman in a relationship. That is the broad spectrum, but it is not all that is to it.
“There is the concept of unconditional love which is the one God shows to us (Agape). We need to learn to walk in that love. There is a love that is shared between a man and a woman in a relationship (Eros)”.
“There is also love among siblings, parents, family members. The Greek word for this kind of love is Storge. There is also Phillia, which is love among friends who can be your colleagues at work or church members. These are people you relate with or share common interests with but you are not romantically involved or connected by blood.
“There is also a love for things and that is Mania which includes love for swimming, traveling and so on. The reason why the Greeks assigned these meanings is because they understood that in expressing love, it must be contextual and you must know the kind of love you are walking in.
“As a Christian, it is very easy to say I love God but you are now fighting with your sibling. So, the Greek person will tell you ‘sir, you only have agape love; you need to work on your storge love’. Let love cover the pain. Let love deal with the pain and disappointments.
“Everyone needs love. It is not just for married people. Because we are relating with other people; there will be brokenness; there will be disappointments and people will get hurt. That is just life. That is why Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 4 verse 8 that above all else, have fervent love because love will cover a multitude of sins, failures, disappointments.
“It will cover the pains, heartbreaks. He is telling us that in life when you go through all these things, which you will go through, bring love inside it. Introduce love deliberately. There may be things that may come up that may want you to withdraw from family members.
“Bring storge into your dealings with your siblings and when that fails, you back it up with agape. In your marriage, there may be strains between you and your spouse; when Eros fails, back it up with agape.
“It doesn’t matter what has happened, it doesn’t matter who has disappointed you or told a lie against you, above all that, put on love consciously and deliberately. In all the dimensions, make sure God’s love towards you is flowing. Don’t let one challenge you are going through allow the Devil whisper one stupid lies into your ears that God doesn’t love you,” he said.