What is love?
Well, as most of us begin when we have a question, I googled it! However, I want to in all honesty say that I did not seek nor find the answer to what love is in google, I googled it to serve as mere comparison and for the purpose of this post. According to different google answers as I simply typed "love" this is what I got:
Wikipedia: Love is an emotion of a strong affection and personal attachment. Love is also said to be a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection —"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another". Love may describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals
Merriam-Webster: (1) strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. (2) warm attachemnt, enthusiasm, or devotion. (3) the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration. (4) unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.
How Stuff Works: Love is a chemical state of mind that's part of our genes and influenced by our upbringing.
John Lennon's "Love" song: Love is real, real is love. Love is feeling, feeling love. Love is wanting to be loved . Love is touch, touch is love. Love is reaching, reaching love. Love is asking to be loved . Love is you, You and me.
There you have it, these are some of the definitions of what love is. But as a christ follower I can tell you that I found the perfect definition of love and I found that in the bible. Therefore, we can see that the definitions of love found in google are not completely wrong, but that they are somewhat "earthly" definitions of love, to which some of them are correct after we know the true definition of love. The Bible tells us in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. What better definition than that?! I say none. With God as love, we see that from there all the other definitions can come into play.
What does it mean that God is love?
Over and over the Bible teaches us about love and the importance of loving one another like Jesus loves us. I think that God is love simply means that God is good, that you can expect the best from Him, that he will ALWAYS love you! A lot of people would say that it is hard to love and that not everyone can do it, but God can and he teaches us how. In 1 John 4:16 He tells us that all we need to do is abide in Him and to believe in His love.
"We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." -1 John 4:16
Why is it so hard to love?
I am not talking about loving your family, or your friends or your significant other, (which are the people we love regardless of what they do), I am talking about loving period. Loving everyone. Even those that dont "deserve" to be loved. I think the answer to this is the fact that staying away from your "enemies" or people you dislike is much easier, but you CAN and should show love towards them. God teaches us this in Luke 6:35, he tells us to love and do good, and that we will be rewarded for this.
"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil" -Luke 6:35
Why must we love?
We must love because without love we have nothing. Why? Because God is love. Therefore God=Love, if we dont have love, we have nothing, if we dont have God, we have nothing. Redundant perhaps, yes I would agree, but I believe it is important for us to always remember this. We see clearly why we must love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." -1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Is love more than a feeling?
The answer to this I think is yes. Love is not just a feeling, its an action and a way of living, living with God, living with love, because God is love. God teaches us this in 1 John 3:17-18, He tells us that it is not enough to just love as a feeling, He teaches us that our love should come with actions, actions of helping those in need.
"But whoever has the world's good, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let u not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." - 1 John 3:17-18
Why must we love everyone?; How de we love like God?
I agree with many people that there are human beings, whose actions and behaviors, make us feel that perhaps they deserve nothing, but we have to remember God's love and what He teaches us in His word. If we ask God to let us see those people like He does and love them like He does, it is possible to love them. That is loving like God. We are human beings, made of flesh to be in this earth, which is why we have such feelings come to mind towards others. However, if we think and love like God, we can see how this changes. We must remember that God gives us mercy and grace. Mercy is NOT giving you what you deserve, which is punishment, judgement, etc. Grace is giving you what you DONT deserve, which is love, compassion, forgiveness, etc. We must open our hearts to love EVERYONE and even more so those who we feel that dont deserve it, because it is them who need it most.
What is the biggest proof we have that God is Love?
If you look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 we see everything that love is, and everything described in these verses is also what God is. There is no one who can be this, except for Jesus, the most Holy of all! Our Lord and Savior. See this by simply substituting God instead of love, and you will see that it is the same. Why? Because God is Love.
GOD is patient
GOD is kind
GOD does not envy or boasts or is proud
GOD is not rude, nor self seeking
GOD is not easily angered nor keeps records of wrongs
GOD does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
GOD always protects
GOD always trusts, hopes and always perseveres
GOD NEVER FAILS!
So will you love? Will you allow God to be love in your life? Will you allow him to teach you to love like he does? Will you look beyond race, gender and sin, to just love? I invite you to just love; to love like God. I challenge you to be the nicest person to the grumpiest person and to the most rude person, why? Because that is LOVE JESUS STYLE! :) <3
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
-1 Corinthians 13:1-13
No comments:
Post a Comment