What is love?
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 26 Sep 2010 in From Steve's Study ::
You’ve got to love receiving love letters don’t you? But how would you like to receive this one?
“Dearest Jimmy,
No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie.
P.S., And congratulations on winning the state lottery.”
What does it mean to really love someone? Surely it’s not about getting what you can out of them (like this letter). However, that is how we sometimes treat love. When we say things like, “I just don’t feel like I love them any more”, or “”How can I love someone I don’t even like?” we are really focusing on what our love does for us, how the person we love makes us feel.
However that is not the kind of love the Bible consistently talks about. The love described (and commanded) in the Bible is more focused on the good of the one who is loved. It is not self-seeking, it is other-person centered. Just have a look at the kind of love Paul describes in Romans 12. Real love is devoted, honest, humble, joyful, generous, empathetic, hospitable, forgiving and kind… all qualities that seek the good of the one being loved, rather than the lover.
What’s your love like? Do you love only those who love you? Do you love only when you feel like it? Do you love only when it “costs” you nothing? Or do you have a love that is willing to sacrifice and does not count the cost? Because after all, our love is merely a reflection of the kind of love God has shown us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19).
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