What is Love?
I love music and especially oldies music which is now starting to include 80s and 90s. That’s right, pause to sigh, 80s and 90s are now considered classic genres in music. One of the most popular topics in music is of course love. For example Tina Turner was really curious to know what Love had to do with it. Hadaway had us all asking what is love? Etta James just wanted a Sunday kind of love. Then of course you had the Band Nazareth who sang about how much love hurts. Then Finally one of my personal favorites, Elvis said to Love Me Tender.
If each of us were to go around and ask people to define what they think love is we would certainly get all kinds of answers. Some would no doubt say love is being kind or tolerant, while Others would say love is simply a deep feeling you have about someone or maybe even how I feel about music. There may even be some who might give an insightful bible verse or even a great Sunday school answer. Well, As we read in the verses above we see the Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of The Holy Spirit, had a lot to say about this topic of love and specifically how our actions might relate to love. The one thing though is that love is never actually defined for us, or at least not yet. So lets go back and see what Gods word does say about what love actually is.
So going back to 1 Corinthians 13 we are now going to look at verse 4 through the first part of verse 8: 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 seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Okay so now we see that the love that is being described in these verses is way more than just a feeling or a desire. Now before we go any further, there are a few things I want to level set so we are all on the same page. In the greek language there are 4 types or descriptors of love which are Eros, storge, Phileō and Agape. The first three of these descriptors do revolve around feelings or desires but Agape is the highest or most premiere descriptor of the word love and that’s the way God uses it here. Agape itself in its simplest Aaron can understand definition means a selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love. What’s even more though is when we look at verses 1-3 what we see is the verb tense of this word agape which is agapen. That word agapen in the greek specifies that this has an object that this love is being shown to or focused on. So basically what we have here is the focus of the love, which is the object itself, which would be the person that would be served by the actions that we see in verses 1-3.
God is saying that unless this is a deliberate choice, not merely an emotion, but a prioritizing of the well-being of this person you are serving, above yourself however that might look without expecting anything in return, then what you are doing is nothing!! Now That’s a gut check for sure because it makes me rethink the kind of ways that I show “love”. The reality, we see is that the word Love is something far greater than is used and thrown around all too easily in the world we live in. I mean Honestly Who could ever give a love that is a deliberate choice, not merely an emotion, prioritizing the well-being of the person and on top of that it never fails?
Jesus demonstrated this very kind of Love, By willingly sacrificing Himself to save us from Gods wrath. He fully knew that we could do nothing in return to ever earn or come close to deserving His sacrifice and Yet He willing went to that cross for each and very one of us and showed that God in His very nature is selfless sacrificial love. Jesus demonstrated Agape for you on that cross bearing your sins and mine taking the punishment that we deserve. Romans 5:8 says But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Today If you know Jesus allow Him to demonstrate HIS Agape through you in whatever you do. If you don’t know Jesus and His love, today is the day to stop running and surrender to Christ and allow Him to forgive you and save you from the wrath of God.
