It's in relationship with Him that "Love Win's"

Luke 6:27
"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,”

Luke 6:32
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”

Luke 6:35
"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and our reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.”

Luke 7:42
"When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?"

Luke 10:27
And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

John 13:34
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

John 13:35
"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 14:15
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

John 14:21
"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."

John 14:23
"Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him."

John 14:24
"He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me."

John 14:31
"but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here."

John 15:9
"Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love."

John 15:10
"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."

John 15:12
"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."

John 15:13
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

John 15:17
"This I command you, that you love one another."

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Bumper Stickers available for free from your Port Macquarie local church, Koorong Books Port Macquarie, Rhema FM 99.9 Port Macquarie & Wassup across Australia.

--LOVE IS PATIENT.
--LOVE IS KIND.
--LOVE BEARS ALL THINGS.
--LOVE BELIEVES ALL THINGS.
--LOVE HOPES ALL THINGS.
--LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS.
--LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

I was on the Interstate when a car passed me with a thought provoking bumper sticker.  It simply read "Love Wins!"  My first thought was, “That really depends on your definition of the first word.”  I wonder how the guy behind the wheel understands the word “love”.  In English, we have one well-worn word for love, while the Greeks had several words for it.  They had a word for the love between fiends, love for close family and love in the sexual sense.  Then they had the cu-de-graw of words for love, “agape”, God's kind of love.

I have been somewhat philosophical lately, so forgive my mental gymnastics.  I started talking to the guy in the car in front of me. "Hey, what do you mean by love?  How would you define the word love?" Do you define it like the Ancient Greeks, who saw love as eros, erotic sexual love, brotherly love or family love?  (I know most normal people don't talk to the automobiles passing them on the interstate. I actually feel better about doing this now that everyone uses cell phones, because if someone sees me they are less likely to think me insane.)

The definition of love is critical to the bumper sticker’s truth. If it is a definition of any kind of love except God's agape love, it fails.  God's kind of self-sacrificing love always wins.  I once heard that all forms of human love can and are abused.  The only love that cannot be abused is God's kind of love.  It is also the only love that heals the abuses of the other kinds of love.

1 John 4:16 states, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."  Notice that John says; "God is love." I wonder, does love define God or does God define love?   I was traveling another road earlier this year to a speaking engagement.  I passed a church sign with a statement that was so wrong.  It said: "God is Love and Love is God!"  This is wrong because love cannot define God.  That phrase is not theologically interchangeable.  By whatever definition of love you choose, you can define God as a sexual god or a god of certain emotions.  If love defines God, then you can make God into almost anything, even perverted things.   We would not have an objective standard love with all of its depth and intensity, were it not for God's demonstration of love.  God defines love. 

When you doubt if anyone loves you, look to the greatest expression of love for you, the cross.  Yes, God is love, and we know what love is and rely on it, because God demonstrated His love for us in this, Christ died for us. God is Love!  I would not know real love or understand what little I do were it not defined by my awesome God!  Yes, my bumper sticker friend, "Love (God's kind of love) Wins!"

Ed Litton

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Love Wins. That's what is on my t-shirt today. I got this t-shirt last year when I, along with my youth pastor and some of the teenagers of Living Springs went on a weekend missions trip to Mexico last year. We'll be going again in just about a month. Love Wins was the theme of the outreach invasion. Every time I put this t-shirt on and I read those words, Love Wins, it puts me in a great frame of mind. When I'm wearing it and others see it, I notice they'll read the words, look up at me, read the words again and simply pass by. Others will say, I like your shirt. Whatever the case may be, Love Wins, gets your mind to thinking. If you're being treated badly, Love Wins. If your the recipient of hate speech, Love Wins. If you're sharing Jesus with someone who seems they couldn't be any less interested, Love Wins. If you are hating on someone today, Love Wins. If someone is getting on your last nerve, Love Wins. If your children are being *brats*, Love Wins. :) To live out our lives with this as our motto would go a long way in promoting peace of mind, relationships, positive attitudes and the list goes on.

So, if you're having a bad day thanks to someone or something else or even yourself remember, Love Wins.

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