What is Love?
by Willie Keys
CRBC Senior Adult Ministry Director
As humans, we navigate life through the highs and lows of our lives. We tend to throw the word “love” around like a hot potato, without knowing the true meaning of love. Until we have made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can’t begin to experience God’s love. We are floating through life with no direction or purpose. Thus, we are missing the opportunity to live our lives in the fashion God wants for us. Love is the most powerful word in the universe. In my opinion, love can provide us with many moments of joy, happiness, peace and sorrow in our lifetime.
John 3:16 says, 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.
As Christians, we should never take this verse lightly. It emphasizes the intensity or greatness of God’s love for us. God’s desire to love us, even though we are sinners, is an extraordinary gift within itself. Sin demanded justice for our soul, but God already had a substitute for the world’s sin, the Lamb—JESUS. To send his only child to die on the cross for our sins, and Jesus’ willingness to give up his deity as God’s son to become a lowly servant can only be explained by one word—LOVE. This is a process for me: God’s love for his son, Jesus, and Jesus’ love for his father, God, and their eternal love for us.
1 Peter 4:8 says, Above all things have fervent love for one another, for love covers over a multitude of sins.
The word “fervent” in this verse means to be stretched or to be strained. This kind of love requires Christians to put another person’s spiritual good ahead of one’s own desires in spite of being treated unkindly, ungraciously or even with hostility.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8: Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; it does not boast; it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs; Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects; always trusts; always hopes; always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthian 13:13: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I believe, with love in the forefront of our lives, we can overcome all the storms we encounter during our lifetime. Our love must have order. Our love of God should be our number one focus, and out of that love, God will aid us in loving one another. God’s love for us has no boundaries. The amazing thing about God’s love is that it is general in nature, yet it’s personal. God loves all his children, but when we accept him as our Lord and Savior, he sends his Holy Spirit to dwell in us. To me, that’s when his love becomes personal.
The capability to love is God’s gift to us. What we do with our gift will display to God how much we love him. As believers of God, we can’t compete with God’s love for us. But we can imitate God’s love by the way we love one another during our daily encounters.