The "Me" Generation; a Generation that knows no love

Today's generation has no clue what love really is. Don't believe me? Ask any teen on the street what love is and I guarantee that they don't come up with what I'm about to tell you. Most of them would say a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, love for a spouse, love for a child—and yes, these are all examples of love; but not the love I am thinking of. I'm talking about the love of Jesus Christ.
The love of Jesus Christ is what I like to think of as 'brotherly love.' Loving someone as Christ would. Leviticus 19:18 says, "You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." Then in John 13:34 says, “I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
Now why would God say to love someone as yourself, then give you a NEW command saying to love as He has loved you? I firmly believe that God realized that we ourselves don't understand the full meaning of love. So He had to define it for us by going to the cross of Calvary. The Bible says, "No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Now He didn't die only for the people that where good to Him—no, He died for you, for me, even those who He knew were going to betray Him. How much more should we love others? How much more should we get out of our busy schedules to show someone God's love?
People also look at the way we act towards each other in the church. So much of the world has crept into the church and it's really sad. There's so much disunity and gossip and lying and hatred among God's people. And that's exactly what the devil wants—disunity. Mark 3:25 says, "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand." If we (the church) aren't of one mind, it is easier for the devil to attack.
The Bible says in 1 John 4:20 "If anyone says “I love God” and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." Do we want people to look at us as liars and people who go against each other? OR Do we want people to be able to recognize us by the love of Christ--that undying, unfailing love?

As Russ Cripps put it in his book-votional ThirtyOneAnothers:

God came down to redefine love, to show us that loving others is real love because real love is not about us, it's about them. We really don't know how to love one another. We must juxtapose the old love and the new love and learn to love others on the same level that Jesus loves them. In that NEW love, the HIGHER love, we place others before ourselves.
It is obvious that we all want to receive the love of Jesus. The real challenge lies in our ability to give love to others also---it's not just caring for them, not just loving them, but loving them as Christ loves you."

Think about this as you celebrate this Valentine's Day. Hopefully, you have a new viewpoint on love. I pray that you start learning to love others as Christ loves you.

<3Krissy