What Is Love?

By Pastor Walter C. Scott, May 5, 2014
Let Go and Soar Ministries

So,what is this thing called Love? What a great topic for discussion,and one I don't pretend to know everything about. Although, God gave me a revelation about what genuine love is supposed to look and feel like, so I will pass that along to the best of my ability.

Love seems to be one of the most important intangible things in our life.To find shared love and experience a genuine, honest and trustworthy monogamous relationship is programmed into us by God. We all understand that men and women need each other and that is exactly what God intended and why he created men and women. He understood and provided this solution. He can and will provide for us in all situations if we just have faith and trust him.

Jeremiah29:11-14
¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me,and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Although we do search for human companionship we should know that we have had God's love all along. God is love.

1John 4:8-16⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. ¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God,and God in them.

God's love for us is through his grace. Undeserved, unmerited and unconditional. We don't have to earn it or ask for it. It is given freely by him, as should ours be to him. His grace and love deserves our trust, obedience, hope, faith and belief. I think God's love for us can be best understood by reading:

John3:16-17
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We know that God created man from the dust of the earth, and then seeing man alone he created woman from man by removing a rib. All this because God saw that man needed a helper.

Genesis2:7-9, 15-18
⁷ Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ⁸ Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. ⁹ The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” ¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Genesis2:20-25
²⁰ So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. ²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
²³ The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man.”
²⁴ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become ²⁵ Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

So, what is a woman to expect from a man and what is a man to expect from a woman? I think, without taking the marriage relationship into consideration, that they should both realize they are equally God's creation and he did not specifically place one as superior over the other. There should be mutual respect and consideration for each other as created offspring of God. Each has various strong points that can be of benefit to the other. There is greater strength in unity than division. Love our brothers and sisters as God intended.

Acts17:26-28
²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.

Now in the marriage covenant the man and woman join together, as in the beginning, and become one again.

Matthew19:4-6
⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

This agape love is more intense and sacrificial, and if honest and true will always consider the needs of the other as more important.

1Corinthians 13:4-8
⁴ Love is patient,love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails.

I think that section out of 1Corinthians is one of the best description of this kind of love. This love has to have a level of mutual trust, respect, consideration and understanding. No one is dominant. To be one is to have unity. There should never be a thought of jealousy or of provoking jealousy. No physical or mental abuse, infidelity, or taking advantage of each other for personal gain or self-promotion. There should not be an immoral thought in a believer when another greets a member of the opposite sex with a hug or is seen talking alone together. We should never do for the other in expectation of some form of tangible reward. We should never make love conditional on a form of behavior or response. Love is being honest without being insensitive or hurtful. Love is always being available to support assist and enable in positive constructive ways. As married couples we are entitled.Love allows for failure and promotes understanding and trust; never judges. We should all feel safe with each other. This is what love looks like in a God-blessed marriage.

We can use many words to describe love, but does it really portray a realistic picture of love? Maybe to some who have experienced it, but not to the uninitiated. Love is an emotion. A very strong emotion. When a man or woman love each other they want to be with that person constantly; physically and in thought. They overlook imperfections, bad habits, behavior, etc.oftentimes to their future disillusionment and disappointment. God wants us to be discerning and listen to the Holy Spirit's guidance.True love is that ache and longing for someone that doesn't fade away after time and trials. It is that felling of mutual completeness and fulfillment, that comes from learning and practicing using each others love language. This is what God intended when he said the two shall become one.This is called relationship.

Ephesians5:33
³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

1Peter 3:7
⁷ Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

The example for us to follow in learning how to love is Jesus Christ. And how did Jesus love others?Did he have conditions or restrictions? No. He was compassionate and understanding, displaying his love by his actions. Just as we should.He gave us his human example so we would be able to see and understand how we are to love Father God and each other. His love never grows old, gets boring or fades away, and neither should ours.

Matthew22:37-40
³⁷ Jesus replied:“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

John13:34
³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

John14:12-13
¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

We can read and understand, through the eyes of human comprehension, what God expects of us and how we are to love him and each other. That is all well and good, although in reality are our actions showing the length, breadth and depth of God's intended meaning and definition of love and relationship? Probably not in all of us or at all times. To love God is to make him the primary focus in our lives. To do his will and place him above all others. Very difficult for many of us. What seems even more difficult is the second commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. You first have to love yourself, realizing that you are created by God in his image and so is everyone else. We are all equals.

Genesis1:27
So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Genesis5:1-2
⁵ This is the written account of Adam’s family line.
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. ² He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them“Mankind” when they were created.

We all must remember and never forget,that this earthly life is only temporary. We are aliens here in this world. Our real home is in heaven with the Father and the Son. This is where we will reconnect with all of our Christian friends and family; for eternity. This life with all its pain and hardship will not even be remembered. Love God, love each other and stay in relationship, for we were created by him in his image.

1Peter 1:17
¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

1Peter 2:11
¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires,which wage war against your soul.

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death ’or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Love and peace-- Amen.