A Definition of Love – Part 1

Definition of Love – Part 1,
First we must recognize that “God is Love” and since we cannot fully comprehend God it makes sense that we therefore cannot in our finite minds comprehend the full dimensions of divine LOVE. But we can get a good handle on it by studying God’s Word which says, “We love, because God first loved us,” and the flip side, “Those God loves, he disciplines“. God is the author of Love, so if you want to understand Love you need to understand God’s Word.

We know that Jesus Christ is the “Word” from John 1:1 which states, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. The Word is perfect and according to Heb. 4:12, “The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit…as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart”. As the Holy Spirit works in us, “testing the heart and searching the mind to give us what we deserve,”God uses the Word to dramatically change our way of thinking (Ps.119): “Revive me according to your word. Fortify me according to your word. May those who fear you see me and be glad, for I have hoped in your word. Your word is forever, …your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my pathway. You are my fortress and shield. I place my hope in your word. The sum of your word is truth.” The Word also proclaims the names of GOD- expressing His eternal Truth and Love: Provider, King of King, Apha and Omega, Lord of Lord, Savior, Creator, the Door, etc.. The Word commands us to love over 55 times! Love is His perfect Command, His character, and also His perfect Gift to us!

The Word of God is “His Story” as it reveals His love message to us through real life struggles and endeavors! It transcends time and puts everything including pain, death, and evil in the right perspective so that through the Holy Spirit we can defeat them and ease the trials they bring.  The Word supercedes our limited knowledge for “the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man!” And when we apply God’s Word it gives us help, purpose, identity, and wisdom beyond mankind’s best scholarship! God’s Word confronts and convicts us with the Truth, then  lovingly comforts us with Grace. “For it is by Grace through faith that we are saved, it is a Gift of God so that no one will boast.” Love is the major part of this pre-imminent gift of Grace. This dynamic tension between Grace & Truth working with love in hearts & minds releases us from all the lies and fears of the world and sets us free! It also is the key to Salvation, a sanctified life in Christ, and eternal life with Jesus Christ!

The Word supercedes our limited knowledge for “the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man!” And when we apply God’s Word it gives us help, purpose, identity, and wisdom beyond mankind’s best scholarship! God confronts and convicts us with the Truth, then He lovingly comforts us with His Grace. “For it is by Grace through faith that we are saved, it is a Gift of God so that no one will boast.” This dynamic tension between Grace & Truth working with love in hearts & minds releases us from all the lies and fears of the world setting us free! It also is the key to Salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ!

So have we defined LOVE? Not really – but we have gotten to its source. Lets explore some more! What is the greatest act of LOVE? Jesus Christ defined it this way, “No greater love is this, than for a person to die for her/his friend”. Jesus did just that, He said to those who loved him that he no longer called them servants, but friends and He followed through by dying for them and for us! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16.  But Jesus also said: “Love your enemies as yourself, do good to those who hate you.” And he also said, “Love your neighbors as you love yourself”. In Mat 7:21-23, he says “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” God seems to be the Ultimate Profiler! Yet God in His Holiness must execute Divine Justice! He alone knows those that have come to Him by faith and faith alone!

Jesus says that friendship with the world is enmity towards God.  Jesus told the begging Canaanite woman that “his food” was for Israel not her! He also says that the path to God’s Kingdom is a very narrow way with a narrow gate as opposed to the broad road and wide gate of the world which leads to destruction. And because of self deception few will find it. Jesus also warned that He was the only way to eternal life- to be with the Father.  Can this “politically incorrect” God be perfect LOVE? Is there LOVE in rejection, in the Law, and in the Judgements made by God in the Old and New Testaments by which people, cities, and nations were wiped out? Here again hard Truth and loving Grace measured with time work together to bring fulfilment to His Promises! “All things work together for good to those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose“. Divine love and faith seems to bind together the natural and the supernatural, death to life, the past to the present, and judgement to forgiveness!.
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The Lord warns of 2 kinds of deception: those who hear and do not do and those who profess yet do not obey. He then says that, “if you do not live a righteous life then you are deceived“. Note that He says all this as a warning in LOVE to the deceived, the Lost, and even the criminal. Why? Because He wants everyone to repent and turn away from sin and rebellion. He wants an eternal relationship with you and me. God sent the Prophets to do exactly that and to present a Hope & a Promise for your future Salvation! The fact that nothing can hide us from His love should tell us how complex, special, and profound His love really is! Jesus also encourages us by saying that even thought Satan is the Father of lies, “He who is in you is greater than the one (Satan) who is in the world!”  And when Jesus confronted Satan in the wilderness, he said “One must not live on bread alone, but on every word coming out of the mouth of God.”

The Classic Biblical passage on LOVE is in Chapter 13 of I Corinthians 13. I will quote the best part of it: “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. . . When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I believe Paul is saying that as we mature in Christ we grow in both faith and Love, but we will not fully understand everything until we are with Christ, then we will fully know the mysteries, the Trinity, and all that He has done for us and through us. In essence we cannot fully understand His LOVE, nor be complete in his “Love” until we are eternally with HIM. Even though we are unable to fully comprehend the extent and depth of His Love within every Word & message, we can learn more and more as we study it, apply it and allow the Holy Spirit to direct us and convict us of sin.

In Rom 8:38-39 Paul states, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We will grow as His Love washes over us and connects us to Him in a deeper way. The faith that He plants will grow and bear fruit in the good soil of Truth, hope, and love! I Jn.4:16 says, “God is love and the one who remains in love remains in God & God remains in him.” In His love, we are born again as “children of God” with a purpose and a plan that He directs! Amen!

We know that GOD is Love and therefore the WORD is love, but how about everything else? The world is fallen! Despite the imperfect nature of man and the world, God is still reflected in His Creation: we see it every day in the beauty, and intricacy of the universe, of nature and in mankind which He (the Triune God- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) created in His image, Genesis 1:26. At best we can allow God’s love to flow through us, just as God’s love is manifested in the variation and order of Creation! After all He made it for us to share and enjoy!

There are dozens of passages that define how we should interact with others in a selfless, loving way. Much like the sermon on the Mount where Jesus shared the essence of Love and Righteousness, Paul speaks over and over again on what being “in Christ” implies: Ph.2:3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others”. Due to the love of money, knowledge, and myths, Paul warned Timothy: “Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge,’ for by professing it some have swerved from the faith”, I Tim. 6:20. As one falls away from the faith, love is misdirected. In Deut. 30:6, God commanded: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” So study God’s Word and not just “hear it” but also “do it”,then Live in Christ and enjoy his love!

WE CAN THEREFORE CONCLUDE: Because God is Love & God is the Word, then the Word of God is Love. Since God is the perfect Creator of everything, we should see evidence of this love in everything that He created – in a sunset or flamingo! God’s message to us should inspire us to study & enjoy his Word & the best of his Creation, to pray earnestly, and to share His Truth & loving Grace with others!  Love is the elastic that holds Grace and Truth together so that our faith is balanced. For it is faith tempered with love that allows us to “see” without our eyes, to know the Truth that sets us free, and to believe in the God of the “impossible”. The whole Divine process of Grace and Truth mixing with Love affecting and transforming us is a better definition of pure LOVE than anything I know! There is of course the world’s love and the feeling and emotion of love. There is of course the world’s love and the feeling and emotion of love. These also play a key part in history, music, and literature; and they do greatly affect our lives in both good and bad ways! Part II will delve into those areas of redemptive truth.  In Truth & Grace, Peter.

The story of Redempton in great literature and music is part of the next episode. We cannot help but be affected by the redemptive love in the great literature of Tolstoy and Shakespeare and in the classic novels Moby Dick, Don Quixote, and To Kill a Mockingbird.