Many Philosophers, Writers, and Singers have pondered the question “What is Love?” since time began.  There are many movies with the name Love in it: PS I Love You, Crazy Stupid Love, Everyone Says I Love You, Love and Other Drugs, and finally From Russia with Love.  Books with the title Love in it include: Love, Love in Disguise, The Truth About Love, An Inquiry into Love and Death, Book Love, and Love is Blind.  A small list of song titles with the word Love in it includes: What is Love?, Endless Love, All You Need is Love, What’s Love Got to Do with It?, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and What if I Told You I Love You. 

Many have tried to define love as a feeling.  The dictionary defines love as strong affection for another coming out of kinship, desire, or sexual desire.  Urban Dictionary takes the definition of Love a step further by stating “The act of caring and giving to someone else. Having someone’s best interest and well-being as a priority in your life. To truly love is a very selfless act.”  In an article from Marriage.com Love is defined in the following way: “Love is a holistic feeling. It involves many elements, words, and actions which define love. What love means to you depends on how it makes you feel and the experiences it brings into your life.”  They even go further to say “If you want to define love in one sentence, love is one of the most profound emotions humans experience. It is a combination of attraction and closeness.”  Many times, Love is defined as a feeling of attraction to another person, an emotional feeling.   

I can love my wife, or I can love a hamburger, but it is not the same type of love.  Even love for another can be mistaken for lust if we are not careful.  The Bible has the best definition and examples of love. 

Paul gives us the best definition of Love in the First Book of Corinthians Chapter Thirteen: ^“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 resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  A person who can master all those qualities would be a great human being and an awesome spouse.

Paul further explains that Love is one of the greatest qualities to have and that Love will always be present: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”  Many different qualities are described here.  Some are stronger than others and some will last longer than others.  But only one quality outlasts all other qualities.  Paul completes this chapter of First Corinthians Chapter 13 with the best quality to have and the one that will outlast all other qualities in life: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

With all this God gives us great examples of Love and how to love each other.  

In the book of Ephesians Chapter Five God thru Paul tells the Church in Ephesus how a husband is supposed to treat his wife:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

The main idea God, thru Paul, lets the husband know that his wife is an extension of his body.  He is not to abuse her or treat her in an improper way.  He is to love her, provide for her, and sacrifice himself for her.  He is also to be the spiritual leader of the family.  This does not mean he is the dictator of the family.  The man is to provide a good environment for the family to learn about God and to feel safe when discussing family-related matters.  I am not going to discuss the wife’s role because women are great at nurturing and loving their families.  Men, me included, need help in loving and this verse is a great follow-up to the lessons in the book of Corinthians. 

To be honest, the abusive man is not a man.  Those men who raise their hands to physically abuse their wives and raise their voices to mentally and emotionally abuse their spouses and children have stopped being men.  Even those men who force themselves on women and children need to stop this action.  Many people do not know that a married man can rape his wife.  If she says no, then no means no.  If you are engaged in any of these actions, please seek help.  No matter how bad things are with your wife, please do not engage in a manner of abuse. You will be a man in my book if you seek counseling, repent, and seek God’s forgiveness.  God will help you and forgive you of your sins.  And He will help you overcome them. 

Many military members, Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, and other first responders have used the following Bible verse as their motivation: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13.  And truly there is no greater sacrifice than to lay down your life for your friends, loved ones, and those you are entrusted to protect.  All First Responders take it a step further, they protect those whom they do not know.  They put their lives on the line for people they have never come into contact with and probably never will again.   God calls us to have this kind of love for our neighbors – whether we know them or not.  We should be willing to lay down our lives for those we know, those we do not know, and especially those we know are not able to repay us.  But this verse of scripture also takes into account helping feed those who are not able to take care of themselves – like giving to children in orphanages, providing help to widows who are not able to provide for themselves, and helping the homeless by providing a meal.  It does not mean giving to those who take advantage.  This verse is to help by providing a meal to the homeless.  Those who are in need but are trying to help themselves can be given help from us as well.  I keep thinking about a lady I ran into who worked the midnight shift at 7-11.  I made a comment about how some people were taking advantage of the welfare system.  She corrected me, in a genuinely nice and funny way, by saying she is working two jobs to feed her three children at home.  For those people, I have no problem giving assistance because she is trying to help herself.  She is showing how she is sacrificing and laying down her life for her children because she loves them.  That is a great example of Love. 

Going back to The First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter Thirteen I can give you the greatest example of Love to us.  John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  This verse is a powerful verse.  I was at lunch with someone who has kids and I asked her if she could watch her own Son take the beating, the disrespect, and the execution in the manner Jesus did?  Without hesitation, she told me “Absolutely Not!”  Another person told me that when she looks at her children playing in the yard, she is watching her heart, but they are playing in the yard.  The ultimate act of love for us happened on Calvary when God allowed His own Son, Jesus of Nazareth, to be beaten, disgraced, flogged, humiliated, and crucified in place of the rest of us.  His son who did not commit any sin, took the punishment for us to have a relationship with us.  He allowed His Son to bear the price for sin as foretold in the book of Isaiah Chapter 53 verse 5 written 800 years before his crucifixion:

 “But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus knew He was going to face crucifixion and was going to be flogged and beaten, but He did it for us as the ultimate example of Love.  John wrote in 1 John 3 verse 16 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”  Jesus’s example leads us to follow His lead and have a sacrificial love for our Brothers and Sisters, Spouses, Children, Family, Friends, and those we cherish. 

With these examples, Jesus left us with several commandments and with His final commission.  Mark 12:29 – 30 says “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  Love God with all you have, and love your neighbor, your friends, your family, your spouse, and your children with a sacrificial love.  Jesus’ Last Request before He ascended to Heaven was written in the book of Mark Chapter 28: 18 – 20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  The reason is documented in Mark Chapter 16:15 – 16 which states “^And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  Jesus does not want you to be condemned into an eternity separated from God.  His love for you and His sacrifice to take on the sins of the world so you can have a relationship with God and have eternal life in paradise (Heaven) was of great importance to Him and God (Our Father).  That is true love, pure love, and the best example of Love.  God gave His Son, Jesus, for us to have eternal life.  He sacrificed His Son to open the door to have a direct relationship with Him.  And to Live with Him in Paradise for all eternity, instead of separated and in torment in the lake of fire (Hell) for all eternity. 

This is Love – That we would give up our own lives for others, that we would give ourselves beyond our limits.  There is no jealousy, no envy, no lust, no rage, and no anger.  There is only trust and a desire to give of ourselves without hesitation to provide for the other person.  We can also empathize with the other person – when they are happy, I am happy; when they are sad, I am sad; when they grieve, I grieve with them and support them during the sadness and grief.  And we try to build them up, not tear them down.  We are there during the good and bad times without any expectations of them.  That is true love. 

If any of this has touched your heart and you want to have a relationship with Our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to spend eternity in Heaven and Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or you feel you have backslidden and want to repent then please pray this prayer:

DEAR LORD, I KNOW I AM A SINNER.  I KNOW I HAVE HOPE IN JESUS.  I WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS AND COME TO YOU TO ASK FORGIVENESS.  I WANT TO ASK YOU TO FORGIVE MY SINS, CLEANSE ME OF MY SINS, GIVE ME THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE WITH JESUS, AND I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR AND HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR ME.  I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO COME INTO ME AS THE GUARANTEE OF MY SALVATION AND WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS.  ALL THIS I ASK IN JESUS HOLY AND PRECIOUS NAME, AMEN

If you prayed that prayer, then I want to say CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF BELIEVERS.  The Angels, The Saints, The Lord Jesus, and all who have gone before us are having a party in Heaven because you chose Jesus.  And I want to welcome you to the family.  Find a good Bible-based church and continue to learn about Jesus.  We are all on this Journey.  And in the end, we will hear God say, “Well Done my good and faithful servant!”