Characteristics of Love: Love completes each other
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NLT) Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Introduction: Welcome again to 33rd out of 40 characteristics of God’s kind of Love known as AGAPE (Based on spiritual process) that differentiate worldly, valentine or EROS ( based on physical process) or PHILIA (Based on emotional process).
🙏 I pray for fruitfulness of God’s words in our lives as we earnestly study at His feet in Jesus name.
📎 The 33rd characteristic of God’s kind of Love this week is: Love completes each other
To complete means to provide the last item needed to make it a full set.
God recognized that Adam was incomplete and made Eve from Adam’s bone to make a complete set of humanity.
Genesis 2:18(NLT) And the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.”
In Apete, at Ibadan a city in Nigeria, decomposed body of a man was found lying on his bed after four years. He was living alone in a fenced building, his car was parked inside the compound with gate locked from behind. He had wife living separately, also children living in Ibadan and abroad. None of them sought him for 4 years. Dying in this way speaks volumes of the life of a loner. The man happened to be brother in-law to my sister in-law. God said; “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.”
🛑 God’s kind of Love completes a union between man and woman while worldly or valentine’s love competes among each other for superiority which ultimately ends in separation and divorce.
In AGAPE Love, the progress of the wife is the progress of the husband and children which makes a complete blissful marriage.
In EROS or valentine’s love, the progress of the wife generates competition with resentment. Death is inevitable at the long run. I heard about a husband, a teacher who refused to allow his wife to park her new official car inside his house. He eventually asked her to resign from the juicy job because she earned 4 times more than his salary. Many people like him see success of their wives as competition NOT completion in marital bliss.
🛑 When sinful nature came into humanity, competition becomes prevalent in all. That competitive spirit wants to bring down by all means whoever seems to do better even among siblings.
The first Murder that took place happened when God accepted Abel’s offering and his brother was angry with him. Cain still went ahead to kill his brother despite God’s warning about his attitude.
Genesis 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
❓How do you see your spouse? A helpful companion or a competitor?
My opinion is that once husband/wife regards what he/she has, like houses, cars, electronics, etc as his/her own, then God’s kind of Love is not in that marriage. I heard about a husband who removed electrical fuse from the meter so that his wife will be denied of watching TV while he went to work. What a marriage?
We are on the 33rd characteristics of God’s kind of Love for us to know God’s expectations from us as Christian couples. The characteristics are drawn from the manual of the originator of marriage. Devil and traditions also have theirs, we are free to choose our marriage manual either from God or tradition of men, but not free from the consequences of our choice. Remember to calculate the future cost of your current decisions. The man whose skeleton was seen after 4 years probably will still be alive today if he was with his wife meant to complement one another in accordance to biblical manual.
❓What practical steps are we to take as we walk in love this week?
▶️ Recognize that your spouse is integral to your future success. Let your spouse know today that you desire to include him/her in your upcoming decisions, and that you need his/her perspective and counsel. If you have ignored his/her input in the past, admit your oversight and ask for forgiveness.
✍ Finally brethren, in this life, there will always be a night time which represents difficult times. A loner cannot survive night times.
Ecclesiastes 4:11(NLT) And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone?
That is why you must stay glued to your spouse with God as the 3rd cord to make your union unbreakable.
Ecclesiastes 4:12(NLT) A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
✋ Maranatha
