What is Love?

What is love? For the Christian, this is a question that must be answered. If a Christian wants to live the abundant life that Jesus wants us to have, then it is important that we have assurance of salvation. We are instructed in scripture to seek assurance. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says that we are to, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

How do we test this? Our feelings are not an accurate test. I can feel that something is true, even though it is not. Think back on the many times you let your feelings lead you to worry or anxiety over something, only to find out that it never occurred. Not that sometimes our feelings cannot be useful, certainly intuition can be helpful in making some judgments, but in our humanity, we are imperfect beings. We often misjudge things and many times we let our feelings lead us astray. But God has not left us to wander aimlessly; He has provided us with His Word. Listen to John from the Bible in 1 John 4:7-8, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

There it is. One test of our salvation is this. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” You don’t even know God if love isn’t a part of who you are. Clearly then, if love is a result of our salvation, then what is love? Again, God has provided the answer.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
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.

That is a very clear description of what love is, how love behaves.

Patient.

Kind.

Rejoices in truth.

Bears all things.

Hopes in all things.

Endures all things.

We also see what love is not and what it doesn’t do.

Jealous.

A Bragger.

Arrogant.

Unbecoming.

Provoked.

Doesn’t even take into account a wrong suffered.

Doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness.

How are you doing with all that? Me? Not all that well. And based on your Facebook pages, I’m not seeing many people doing all that much better.

Thankfully the Bible says this about God.

Psalm 86:15
But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.

Lamentations 3:22-23
The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

But we must not mistake God’s longsuffering nature to allow us to live without regard for His commands.

Romans 2:4
 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

I fall short of the love I am called to be living out. Most if not all of us do. But Let us encourage each other to start this very day, to be a people who love. A people whose love mirrors that of the love of God. Imagine a world where all of us who claim the name of Christ, loved each other in the way that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

This morning you were given a new day. How will you use it? How will you love? The choice is yours.