LOVE'S PATTERN

" A man truly loves you when missing you is his hobby...Caring for you is his job... Making you happy is his duty.. And Loving you is his Life." - Anonymous


Eph. 5:25-28 (MSG)
Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor—since they're already "one" in marriage.


I have had cause to listen to ladies ask a particular question when it comes to the matters of the heart, love. It's the question of how to truly know if a man loves a woman. Many times one could get so carried away in the peripheral aspect of a love relationship especially for the women, that they only conclude that the presence of the signs of romantic love is equivalent to true love. The crux of the matter is, that alone isn't quite sufficient and as a matter of fact, a love relationship that has all four expressions of love (agape/unconditional love, sterego/family love, phileo/friendship love and eros/romantic love) is one which has a higher chance of surviving the times, as challenges will come to every single relationship.

I know that there are quite a number of places in scriptures where the love of a man for a woman was recorded but that which I consider to be the utmost of them all is what I have chosen as the opening passage of scripture for today. I see this scripture passage as having all the expressions of God's wonderful love for us in it. Let me tell you how. Let me try to paint a picture of how God has shown and will show us all the different aspects of love. First, God loved us all so much he gave His Son to die for us while we were yet sinners (agape, John 3:16), then Christ came and showed this love to us calling us as friends ( Phileo, Matthew 12:49) as well as making us brothers (sterego, John 15:15 ). Lastly, you might want to even ask, 'How about the romantic expression of Christs love to us?' That's the last expression of His love he has in view for us all, the Church, when we get into His eternal rest. Scripture speaks about the marriage feast of the Lamb.

There it is, a man truly loves you if he has the love of God spread in his heart by God's Spirit, is so proud and bold to tell you and everyone else by his continuous deeds and actions and statements of how he loves you as his friend and family member. Lastly, you know a man truly loves you if he's willing to wait till that blessed day when you both take your vows as man and wife. That is, when you both come into the rest of marriage where the totality of love is expressed in all its forms. Learn to pattern yourself according to the Word; use God's word as your basis for judging and making decisions. Let all the men reading this use the scripture passage above to both learn how to love and measure their love for their partner. Let all the women reading also use this passage to define love. Have a blessed day.


Keep Loving, Keep Living..................LOVE ISSUES.
@bibilovejunkie