What is oxygen? It can be hard to define because it’s something you can’t experience through the five physical senses. Yet, its effects are evident in literally everything around us. We know that being close to the source, a forest for example, is healthier than being in a smog-dense city. The same is true of love. The closer we get to the source, the healthier we are.
God is love and the everlasting source of pure uncontaminated Agape love. The enemy uses counterfeit “love-like” elements to lure us into everlasting destruction because he has no real love for us. Hell is the devil’s desire for us, whereas heaven is God’s desire for us. We need to know that Satan is the (temporary) prince of this world and his influence is in every facet of it. One thing the world teaches us is that we can tell that we truly love someone “because he/she completes me”. God says He knows that He loves us because He completes us. Therefore, if we’re in a relationship because of what we get out of it, we have something other than God’s authentic love for the other person.
Authentic love is sacrificial. Evidence of this can be seen in the many sacrifices new parents make for an infant. New parents sacrifice their will, sleep, money, and comfort – just to name a few – all for the sake of someone who can only make demands of them. “Feed me”, “change me”, “pick me up”, etc. all the while never doing so much as to pick up a sock or clean one dirty dish. Parents know how immature infants are and that their heart is to move them from helplessly flopping around to standing on their own two feet. Love is wanting others to be whole and being willing to help them get there. This is the heartbeat of Jesus. Without this love we are left with lust and counterfeits. We are left chasing the ways and things of the world in vain attempts to fill the void in our lives. The void God can and wants to perfectly fill.
But think about this: while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display—the Anointed One died for us. Romans 5:8 The Voice
