Living in Increase (Part 2) - Increase in LoveSample

Week 1: The Four Types of Love

The Season of Love

At the time of writing this, we are quickly approaching that one holiday where (almost) everyone celebrates love: Valentine’s Day. It’s funny how one holiday like Valentine’s Day can set the tone for an entire month! Depending on where you’re at in your personal relationships, February can be a fantastic or challenging month. We chose to focus on “Increase in Love” for the next four weeks because, while relationship status and struggles may make us despise the “Valentine’s” season and all others like it, the concept of love is the greatest reason to rejoice!

John 3:16 says that the Gospel–Jesus born of a virgin, who lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross for all our sins, rose from the grave, and He’s coming back again–was birthed from love. It doesn’t say, “For this is how God hated the world” or “For this is how God corrected the world.” Instead, John 3:16 says that God showed His love for us by sending His Son, Jesus so that we could have everlasting life with Him!

Did you know that there are different kinds of love? While I, as an English speaker, only have one word to describe how I feel about my husband, family, friends, and God, the original Greek writers of the Bible had specific terms for specific kinds of love. We will study these four types of love over the next four days.

As we begin this journey to increase in love, I pray that you will know how loved you are by God. If you ever feel unloved, think about how much God loves you! Recall John 3:16 to mind and make it personal:

“For this is how God loved me: He gave His one and only Son, so that I could believe in Him and not perish but have eternal life.”

What great news this is!

Emily N. Green

Action Step: Write down five things you love about God. Then, write down five things God loves about you. If you don’t know what God loves about you, look for some verses in the Bible to help you get started.