What is love?

What is love? Is it a feeling? An emotion? Is it an action? What are the characteristics of love? What does it look like? Where can I find love? Does it come from someone or something else? Or does it come from within me? How does one express love? How can I show love to someone else? How do I know if I am a loving person? What is love? So many questions... are there any answers?

What does the scriptures say about love? Perhaps the best description of love can be found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 which is written as follows:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

At first glance it looks pretty easy, doesn't it? It doesn't look like it would be too hard to do. Well, not quite. Try replacing the words love and it with your own name and re-reading the passage. It would look something like this (put your name in the blanks):

"____ is patient, ____ is kind. ____ does not envy, ____ does not boast, ____ is not proud. ____ does not dishonor others, ____ is not self-seeking, ____ is not easily angered, ____ keeps no record of wrongs. ____  does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ____ always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Now be completely honest with yourself. If you are, you can clearly see that this is something that is way beyond yourself. It's much harder than it looks, if not nearly impossible. Is that it then? Is love so far beyond us that we can't possibly obtain it? Humanly speaking it is. The thing is, we've forgotten who love is. It's clearly not us. So who is love then? God. God is love. Jesus, whose selfless, self-sacrificing death on the cross being the most perfect example of love, is love.  So we can put Jesus's name in the blanks. The passage would then look like this:


"Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast, Jesus is not proud. Jesus does not dishonor others, Jesus is not self-seeking, Jesus is not easily angered, Jesus keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

No we have a much clearer view of what love is. Love is not a what, but a who. Jesus is love. Without him in your life, you can never experience, nor can you show the kind of love mentioned in this passage.  This love is real; this love is true; this love is perfect. This is the kind of love that I want for my life. Do you?