What Love Is

Beyond the box of chocolates series

A couple of years ago, I had an opportunity to lead a ladies group in learning about love. What love is, what love isn’t, what love looks like and why should we love, were among the topics discussed. This week I got thinking of Valentine’s Day coming up, I started thinking that this might be a good time to share some of what I learned. A thought that was further empathized  today when I heard someone make a comment about Valentine’s Day being a ‘Hallmark Holiday’. An superficial excuse that companies use to suck more money out of people while offering nothing in return. Now, while I might not have an idea on how Valentine’s Day got it’s start, what’s important to realize here is that it doesn’t matter how it got it’s start and I’m not here to talk about how the day can be exploited. What is important is love. That is what the heart and soul of Valentine’s Day should be about. So, the first and most basic question then becomes, ‘What is love?’

What is Love?

There are many ways of defining love.

Among the definitions in the Merrium Webster Dictionary, love is listed as:

1. Affection based on admiration or an assurance of affection
2. Unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another such as, the Fatherly concern of God for humankind, the brotherly concern of other
3. A person’s adoration of God

According to gotquestions.org, “love is the emotion felt and actions performed by someone concerned for the well-being of another person.”

My own definition: Love is a gift of personal sacrifice freely given.

Love is a gift of personal sacrifice freely given.

My thought here being born of my thoughts on Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. It wasn’t even just the sacrifice in and of itself. It was a sacrifice that Jesus was free to offer or withhold. He made that choice. He had the power to come down off of that cross. But, BECAUSE of the great love that He had for us, He chose us. He chose to endure the pain and the suffering and the agony, when He could have ended it at any time, for us. Because He loved us that much.

Love is a call to action.

Love is a call to action. The knowledge that something or someone is of great enough value to cause us to sacrifice our time, our energy, and our resources freely.

When we pray, when we worship, when we study our Bible, or simply sit in silence with the Lord, we are offering to Him a sacrifice. We are offering our time, our energy, our attention, that could have gone somewhere else. He gave us the gift of free will so that we would have the choice to offer of ourselves freely in return.

When we say, ‘I love you.’, when we stop and listen, when we greet one another with a hug, when we mow a neighbors lawn or bring them some cookies, we are offering that sacrifice to those around us. We could have kept our mouths shut, walked quickly past with our eyes on the ground and ignored the needs of those around us. But that isn’t love.

Love is a gift of personal sacrifice FREELY given. If it is coerced out of us or demanded, it cannot be freely given.

What does the Bible say love is?

First and foremost, the Bible tells us about love as a noun. That God Himself IS love. God our Father, the Creator of the universe, the beginning and the end, He is love.
Anything we can ever hope to know or understand about love begins and ends in who God is. To know God is to know love.

The Bible also tells us about love as a verb. Actions that we ourselves can take demonstrate love. Loving others means being patient, being kind, bearing all manners of things, believing, hoping and enduring.

1 John 4:16 – God is love – “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” -‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 – “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” -‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭4‬-‭8‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

1 John 4:7-12 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” -‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬-‭12‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

What love is is exemplified to us throughout the scriptures. God shows us what it means to love through His own actions.

John 3:16 – ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”‭‭ -John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

When we FREELY sacrifice our time, our efforts, our money, and ourselves for the sake of others, for the well-being of others (sometimes even for the well-being of ourselves), that my friends, is love.

Check out my free printable on What Does The Bible Say Love Is?