Circulate The Authentic Love Of God

Joshua Crawford

When counterfeit money gets into circulation, everyone involved is affected.  Banks and businesses can get stuck with illegitimate bills and begin circulating them to unsuspecting customers, causing many to suffer from one person’s crime.  God is the Creator of authentic love, but as the millions of broken hearts can attest to, there’s a counterfeit love in circulation.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7-8) John, known as the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 19:26), explains that God is the Creator and Producer of genuine love; the love from Hollywood, magazines, and human hearts are counterfeits.  If God really created love, what does his legitimate version of love look like?  God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7)  The Creator of love, by sacrificing his only Son for an undeserving people, shows that real love is total sacrifice whether the recipient is deserving or not.  Does Hollywood’s love look like this?  Does the love from our own hearts look like this?  We’ve been scammed with counterfeit love and we may be unknowing distributors of this fraudulent, bogus love.

The best way to expose a counterfeit bill is to study the original.  Jesus, the original demonstration of God’s love, says this, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13)  Jesus explains his sacrifical love is the model for all future love, which is far from the world’s version of love that seems to always ask the question, “What have you done for me lately?”  Paul the apostle agrees that Jesus is the example of love we’re all to copy, as he says, “…be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

The loving act of Jesus on the cross isn’t just a nice symbol or gesture, it’s legal tender that bought life from God.  “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)  When we distribute the authentic love of God, sacrificing ourselves for even the undeserving, as Jesus does, we bring life into dead situations; when we settle for the self-serving, copycat love this world offers, we will continue to break hearts and disappoint ourselves.  Get your hands on stacks of the authentic love of God!