What is Love
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Love is something that almost everyone wants. We want to know what it is like to be loved and to love someone else. This word is something that in our world is usually used in a romantic sense. Is love what the two sixteen year old kids feel when they are out on their third date? Is love what a couple feels as he gets down on one knee and proposes? Is love what a couple feels when they stand at the “altar” and vow to be loyal and true until death? While all of these things are love, the true love is much deeper than just the romance.
Often some of the strongest love seen is not even related to romance. Is love what a father feels the first time he hears a heartbeat? Is love what a grandmother feels when the grandchild runs with enthusiasm and jumps into her arms? Is love what a child feels when they stand by and watch their parent take their last breath? Each of these things, and countless other deal with love and are completely separate from romance.
Yet both of these things are feelings. Is love just a feeling? Is love just the feeling we get when we are around certain people? Is love just about feeling loved, or is it deer than that? I can’t help but to think of the many spouses who have been abused and mistreated. Husbands who have beat, hit, and mistreated their wives out of their own selfishness. I can’t help but to think of a few news articles I have read of parents that have done horrible things to their children. There are parents who have beat their children, abused them, and even killed their children. Selfish parents who were more concerned with their own convenience than their children. Most would be very quick to state that there is a lack of love in both of these situations. Spouses who abuse their mate and parents who abuse their children really don’t have the love for them that they should have. So love is more than just the “feeling of love” that we sometimes feel.
So what is true love? John 13:15 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Most have felt this type of love to a small degree. Maybe it has not come to sacrificing ones own life for love, but love that is willing to sacrifice. Love is the parent that would run back into the burning house to try and save their child. Love is the spouse that would put themselves between their mate and danger to protect them. Love is a willingness to sacrifice of one self in order to provide and do what is best for them.
Love has a great spiritual side as well. When we love our spouse, we want what is best for them spiritually. We want our spouse to be right with God and we will sacrifice whatever is necessary to help them be right spiritually. Love is wanting our children to be right spiritually. Love is putting forth the effort and making the sacrifices and changes necessary so that they are right spiritually. It is this love that does not want to see our loved ones lost for eternity. Yet it is this same love that should give us the desire and willingness to help others. This same love that does not want to see anyone suffer through eternity or even life not right with God.
Love is more than romance. Love is more than a feeling. Love is a willingness to put the good of others before the selfishness of ones self. Jesus is the greatest example of love and has given us a great pattern to follow. Love is more than it seems. Love is more than the world portrays it to be. Love is the beginning of everything good.
