Love - as Defined by God

Love is the most popularly spoken theme of all in the universe. For many decades, it has been the anchor point from which many written and visual works have been produced. Many, especially young people, have based their definition of love on the kind presented by these works. And yet, it is the subject of which most people are ignorant.

The acceptance and utilization of this inferior kind of love based on ignorance has had its adverse effects on humanity. Divorce cases, parental abuse, wars and the like, are on the increase. Many have given up on love. Many think it is overrated. Worst of all, some think love does not exist. But is love really absent from the world as generally perceived? Or if it exists, does it fail?

The Bible says, Love never fails. The truth is – love has always been and will always be. That for us, is an indication of the inability of love to fail. So, what love has been failing? The pseudo love of course - the sub-standard type that has been presented to the world by Satan as real and true. True love is the Love of God.

The Love of God predates time. And if it predates time, it invariably predates man because man was brought into the realm of time. Therefore, love is older than man. But this love of God, though existing before humanity, is yet the very force that brought man into existence. The Love of God is the very reason that man was made.

Man was made for love. This means man was made to love and be loved. Love is the life of God that stems from His Being and makes Him who He is. Before creation, He is love. Before He had man to show his love, he is love. When He speaks, love speaks. When He instructs, love instructs. When He moves, love moves. This tells us that when God decided to make man, love decided to make man.

So, did God just feel like making man out of love? No! The Love of God is not a feeling. It is different in every way from that which the world knows. It is pure. It is not self-seeking. It is a sacrificial entity. Unlike what the world knows love to be, love is not a feeling. It is a duty, or a doing. So, what does Love want to do for/to us?

Love wants us to know Him. Him? Right – Him. Love is a person. The Bible says that God is love; not that he has it, but that He IS IT.

‘He that loveth not knoweth not God; for GOD is LOVE.’   - 1 Jn. 4:8

It is important to know that the Love of God is a knowledge we must come into. Man is called to come and know love. Knowing love is knowing God. And if God wants us to know him, we must come into fellowship with him. Coming into fellowship is impossible without first believing. Believing that God loves the world and believing he gave his only Son for it is the beginning of the journey into knowing the Love of God as it truly is.

‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’   -   John 3:16

Love is the greatest thing/being to have existed. This therefore means that love should be the greatest quest of man. And it is what God wants us to become. God wants us to become love beings like himself. He wants to bring man into the ultimate experience of knowing him who is the embodiment of love in its truest and purest form.

Knowing Love/God is knowing his expectations/demands/will, and doing them. As earlier mentioned, love is a doing. As a believer, our journey of knowing the Love of God begins with knowing the Love of Christ. This is where our faith is tested in obedience to the demands of Christ as it is being revealed to us. It is this journey of faith, hope and charity that plunges us into the realm of the Love of God where we know, even as we are known.

'I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.' -

Proverbs 8:17

When we love God and do his will, he will begin to love us again. Yes, he loves us. But he will begin to love us with a fervent love. He will begin to come to us and give us himself. Love wants to pour out all of Himself to man. He wants to fill man up with Himself. God wants man to experience Him to the extent that we will be overtaken by Him.

‘Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as DEATH; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.’   -  Song of Solomon 8:6

Love is a consuming fire. And to be loved by God is to be consumed by Him in the pure passion of his will. The Love of God in this level is death - death to flesh and self. Man ends and God takes over. This is the workings of the Love of God.