Last year, a beloved friend sent me a very well written email about love. Soon thereafter, I voluntarily engaged in a friendly Facebook spar with a friend of a friend who happens to not be a believer. She and I were operating with reciprocity during our friendly debate (A great big thank you to Pastor Micah Sutton for expanding my vocabulary! {www.legacykona.com}) In that online conversation, I quickly learned…love has many definitions. My “argument” for lack of a better word, was based on God’s Word. Her argument was based on opinion from personal experiences which were not all positive. She and I quickly determined, we were not comparing apples to apples. All this made me think…what IS love? Until we can rightfully define love, we cannot make a valid comparison.
So many times when someone says, “I love you”…they would be just as well to say, “I hormone you”…it just doesn’t sound as catchy as, I love you. {Laughing Out Loud} Some base their definition of love on what they see coming out of Hollywood. Freak out…shudder! Quite honestly, until the last six years or so when I was born again, I had no idea what love truly was. As I grow in my relationship with Jesus, love is becoming more and more clear to me every day.
Since He made all things (John 1:3) the best way to correctly define love is by referring to the Truth…God’s Word. First Corinthians tells us love is:
- Patient
- Kind
- Does not envy
- Does not boast
- Is not proud
- Does not dishonor others
- Is not self-seeking
- Is not easily angered
- Keeps no record of wrongs
- Does not delight in evil
- Rejoices with the truth
- Always protects
- Always trusts
- Always hopes
- Always perseveres
- Never fails
God is love. (1 John 4:8) Wow…that’s powerful because God is always faithful. (1 Corinthians 1:9) I believe love is a very powerful living force and darkness dissolves in the presence of true love.
If we love God, we will keep His commands. (John 14:15) We are commanded to love. (Mark 12:31) If we love God I believe our decision to follow his commands is between us and Him. Not between us and the person we are commanded to love. As a result, love isn’t a feeling, it is obedience. But exactly what does all this mean in our day to day relationships? How do we walk out this love as we are commanded? All religion aside, I believe it has a lot less to do with our relationship with others and more to do with our relationship with God, our heart regarding obedience and submission to Him. All of which has very little or nothing to do with how someone treats us. (Luke 6:32-34) When someone mistreats us and our flesh screams to retaliate, we have a decision to make. Do we repay evil for evil? (Romans 12:17) Or do we love Him and keep His commands because our relationship with Him outweighs our desire to fulfill the flesh?
I believe love is:
- To meet someone “where they are at” like God meets me “where I am at”.
- To fill someone’s needs similarly to how God fills my needs or at least to the best of my biggest effort.
- To treat others with a heart of compassion as God treats me with His heart of compassion.
Is this even possible? Ephesians 5:1, 2 and Matthew 19:26 says yes! But in order to operate with the love of God we must have the love of God flowing in and through us! He fills us to the overflow and that love spills out onto everything we do. (Matthew 9:12) My prayer for this Valentine’s Day is to have the power to grasp every day how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is until it overflows in every area of our lives and to all those who come into contact with us! (Ephesians 3:18)
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