What is Love?

Perhaps no other subject throughout human history has been written about as much as love.  People are captured by the idea of love.  As a society we spend untold hours and billions of dollars on the subject.  Our heroes seek it.  Our bards opine it.  Our youth are inundated with its value.  Countless authors have written myriads of books revolving around this universal subject.  And problem with all of these conditions is most of us have no idea what love really is.  God’s spoken word authored this world.  It would then stand to reason that He has the authority to define the seemingly most captivating subject within it.  So, what does God say love is?

First I want to point out that love is a commandment.  Look with me at Deuteronomy 6:5

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

It is given to us as a commandment again in Leviticus 19:18

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

You see, love is given to us in the law as a commandment.  The implication then is that love is an action you commit.  If God did not command that we have an emotional response to him,  He commanded us to action.  So many times in marital counseling someone will say, “I just don’t love him anymore,” or, “We just don’t love each other the way we used too.”  I inevitably find myself wanting to scream, “Then you better start right now.”  Contrary to what this world wants to sell you, love is not an emotion.  Desire is an emotion.  Happiness is an emotion.  Infatuation is an emotion.  Love is an action.    Love is not something you fall into.  Love is not something that finds you.  Love is not something you find.  Love is something that you are commanded to do. 

This means that when your spouse does something you don’t like you still have to love them.  This means that when someone betrays your trust you still have to love them.  It is a scary concept.  It means you are responsible and accountable for whom you choose to love.  There is suddenly no acceptable reason for not loving; anyone.  Accepting love as a commandment changes the horizon.  Suddenly, love has nothing to do with an inexpiable force.  Suddenly no one is a victim.  Suddenly love is no longer something that happens to you; but something you do.   Suddenly you are empowered to love the way God intended.

Love is not just a commandment.  Love is the greatest commandment. It is preeminent above all other aspects of God’s law.  When asked the greatest commandment Christ points towards love.  As a matter of fact in Matthew Chapter 22 Verses 37 through 40 he states that all the law hangs upon the precept of love.

And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Christ showed that love is very foundation of the old covenant which God established with Israel.  But, in John Chapter 15 Verse 3, He gave it as His own personal commandment to His disciples.

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Love’s prominence then as a commandment is astounding.  It is the most inescapable aspect of God’s communion with mankind through His Word.  However, it goes far beyond God’s chief concern of our conduct.  Under the New Covenant love becomes the out-pouring of the new creation we are in Christ Jesus.  According to Paul’s letter to the Galatians love is the fruit which the Holy Spirit produces within us.  Chapter 5 Verses 22 and 23 read as such:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law. 

Not only is love given as on of the fruits the Holy Spirit produces in our lives, it is given as the first of these.  Love’s place among these most profound gifts is solidified in the 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.  Here Paul, in some of the most beautiful language of the entire Bible, forever shows love is not only a fruit of the Spirit.  Love is the preeminent fruit of the Spirit.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Wow, the escalation of love’s prominence keeps going.  To see love as the greatest fruit borne by the Holy Spirit is to begin to appreciate its importance in the life of a believer.  In fact, love identifies us as believers.  You know a fig tree by its figs.  You know a believer by their love.  Christ put it this way in John in John 13:35:

By this all will know that you are my Disciples, if you have love for one another.

So, love is Christ’s preeminent commandment (action) which transcends the law as the preeminent fruit of the Holy Spirit which is used to identify and individual as a true believer.  That seems like a lot.  But wait, there is more.  Love is also used to define God.  There aren’t many words which by themselves can be used to define God.  However, love is used in that very manner in 1 John 4:8

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

To say that God is love then is entirely accurate.  God then goes on to define the word which He used to define Himself.  Look in the second epistle of John at verse six.

And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning; that we love one another.  This is love, that we walk according to His (God’s) commandments.  This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. 

Now we have a definition of love that we can sink our teeth into.  When God says I am to love my neighbor He is telling me to observe His statuettes and commandments in regards to that person.  How beautiful is that.  If you want to know how to love your spouse the way God intended all you have to do is live your life the way God told you to.  If I truly love someone God’s directions for what is holy and right are my guiding principles on my relationship to that person. 

This is a stark contrast to how many people view love today.  Many times I see people treat God’s law as if it were in total opposition to love.  How many times have you heard someone say, “Well I know what the Bible says.  But, God loves us and wants us to be happy.”  God does love us.  That’s why the Bible says what it says.  In His infinite love God wants what is best for us; not what makes us happy.  You see, God’s love is given to us in His Word; not in spite of it. 

What does that love look like in our lives?  The Apostle Paul describes it in his first letter to the Corinthian church.  In Chapter 13 Verses 4 thru 8 it’s given to us in this way:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  Love never fails.

I fear that love, as described here, is almost unrecognizable by us today.  When I walk into churches today I see little suffering of any kind; much less long suffering.  In truth, I've seen people leave churches because they were asked to move seats.  “Can you believe what he said to me?” Our pastors encourage envy by promoting a gospel of prosperity.  “If you entreat God’s favor you will prosper (have material possessions).”  We as “Christians” today lack humility.  As a matter of opinion, some of the least humble and most rude people I know claim to be Christians.  Furthermore, we use love as an excuse to condone iniquity in someone’s life rather than speak God’s Truth.  “Well I know what the Bible says.  But, God wants us to love everybody,” is given as the common excuse for whatever sin we want to overlook.  We no longer bear anything.  We believe little of what God actually says and view all others with skeptical eyes.  I am to hope all things.  That hope is to include the redemptive work of sanctification in the lives of my fellow believers as well as God’s promise thereof.  These characteristics of love are missing from our lives.  They have been replaced with this world’s view of love.  The love our society boasts of today is one that is fickle, frail, and failed.  “We used to love each other,” or, “I fell in love with someone else,” are the death rattles of many a marriage today.  Our society’s love is one that fails continually.  This is not the love that God described.  It certainly isn’t the love He demonstrated for us.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 describes not just what love looks like, but what it accomplishes.  Love redeems the one who is without merit.  Our churches are in need of that love.  Our homes are in need of that love.  My soul is redeemed by that love.

To Those Who Doubt

I was recently cruising social media when I ran across this question as it was posed to a friend of mine (real friend, not the social media kind) who happens to be a pastor.  I have shortened the original question to help keep it on point. I corrected some spelling and grammatical errors.  However, I left the majority in an effort not to alienate the quote entirely from its original voice.  The question was posed as such:

Don’t think I’m trying to [be] the devil or anything, lol, but scripture was written by ordinary men, picked through by men, and organized and rearranged by men.  … Books have been added.  Books have been taken out, by men [whose] motives may be questionable.  I don’t know how to ask what I’m thinking without sounding like a terrible doubting Thomas.  But, you see where I’m going with this.

I want to first point out that Ms. Jane Smith, regardless of what she wants to sound like, is doubting. She doubts that the Bible is in fact the Word of God.  I understand.  Her doubts are quite common. The question which she states is one that has been put forward many times before.  In answer to this question I now submit the following:

To those who doubt God’s Word,

There is no logical or empirical argument that can convince you that the Bible is the inerrant and living Word of God.  Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying.  The Bible is logical.  The Bible is supported by empirical evidence.  When you test what the Bible (truly) says, with (truly) open eyes, you will see that it is true (Romans 1:20, 1 Thessalonians 5:21).  But someone cannot be logically or empirically argued to faith (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).  Furthermore, the sad part about all this is that unless you believe the Word of God you can’t have true faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 10:17).  After all, the Bible says that Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-5, 14).  And without faith in Christ Jesus we have no forgiveness of our sin (Acts 4:12).

So I urge you.  Find a body of believers who teach sound doctrine, will build you up, and encourage you forward as you seek God’s truth.  Then, test God’s word.  See if it is true.  But, most importantly, pray that God would give you His understanding.  An intellectual knowledge of God and the Bible does not save.  For by grace we have been saved through faith, and that (faith) is not of ourselves.  It is the gift of God.  It does not come by our works, be they physical, spiritual, or mental (Ephesians 2:8).

Yours is Christ,