Second Friend Day - Elmer Towns

Chapter 11
LEARNING TO LOVE
When you become a Christian you enter God's family. You are now His child. One of
your greatest tasks will be to learn how to love. Love is the nature of God and you must love, to
be like Him. Love is the basic rule of the church and you must love others to be Christian.
In an earthly family, a child recognizes love before he knows the word or understands its
definition. Now in God's family as a new Christian, you know God loves you. "For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" (Jn. 3:16).
A baby can feel the protective love of his parent. He naturally loves those who love him.
Here a lifelong relationship grows between parent and child. Eventually he will say, "I love you,
Mommy." You want to learn how to love God and to love others.
The following principles will point you toward love but will never produce love. In the
same way, a book on loving your wife will not make you love her but will help you analyze your
relationship. You express love by holding hands, kissing and sending love notes. In the identical
pattern you learn to love God by meditating, praying, reading the Scriptures and doing what He
desires.
1. You grow by studying "love" in the Scriptures. Take a concordance and look up
every reference to the word love. Jesus commands, "A new commandment I give unto you, that
ye love one another; as I have loved you" (Jn. 13:34). Later He reaffirms this statement, "This is
my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (Jn. 15:12). You should love
other Christians for many reasons, least of all because God motivates you to love others. "Ye
yourselves are taught of God to love one another: (I Thess. 4:9). The ultimate indication that you
are a Christian is your love. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren" (I Jn. 2:14).
2. You will spend a lifetime studying the nature of love. Love is an experience; you
can't put it in a test tube and analyze it. Like quicksilver, as soon as you think you corral it, love
escapes. Maybe the problem is with our definition of love. We place emphasis on the result we
seek, rather than on the conditions that bring about the results. We think that love is feelings.
But love is deeper than feelings. In reality, your feelings express the love that's in your heart.
You can't love the children in your church as you can love your own. Love is measured by our
hearts, not our feelings. Ever see a wife get mad at her husband that she loves? Her feelings
betray her love. The ultimate test of love is not the feelings of our heart but the deeds of our
lives.
When God wanted to love you, he went beyond the deep feelings of His heart, He died for
you. When you love your kids, you go beyond the feelings of your heart, you work, teach and
sacrifice for them.
Jesus said, "Love your enemies." Loving your enemies is more than having the right
feeling in your heart. You must do the right thing toward them. Jesus taught us how to love our