Love goes beyond February 14th

Author Ike Mcdonald

You may watch television commercials or listen to people around you talk about the month of February as the love month, or you hear people say that “love is in the air” as they celebrate the month of love celebration when a particular day (February 14) is picked to highlight love. Does it cause you to wonder what love really is? If you do, you’re not alone. Love has been interpreted to mean everything but what it really is. To understand what love truly means, it is necessary to look at love from the biblical stand point, this would also help us to understand how important it is to God, and how we ought to express it, and also enjoy it.

To begin with, we must understand that love is more than a feeling. To truly define love, let us pause and reflect on what scripture has to say in 1 John 3:16-18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and truth” (NIV).

From the above referenced scripture text, the true meaning of love can be explained as exemplified by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. This defines what love truly is. Christ’s love for humanity was demonstrated through his action; “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,….” (John 3:16, NIV). Therefore, true love can be defined only in action. Loving one another appears in acts better than words. Moreover, our attitude to, and actions with what we own and possess reflects our love for, and relationship with Christ.

True love acts to help the one in need with whatever that God has blessed us with.

When love is mentioned within the context of this discourse, I am making reference to God’s love that was deposited in the heart of the believer in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Writing to the Roman Christians, Apostle Paul did not mince words to say that “Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5, NIV). This also is applicable to the contemporary Christians. The love of God is the root from which any genuine love is grown. If any one does not have the love of God in him or her through the presence of the Holy Spirit, it would be difficult, if not impossible to express true love to another, because nobody can rightly be expected to give what he or she does not have. It is expected that those who have benefited from God’s love should extend love to others.

Requiring anybody to love as God loves us might seem nebulous to a person who only understands love from the perspective of feelings or emotional sparks. While that kind of love has its place in human relationships, it can only be sustained when it grows from the root of God’s love. To help us appreciate true love, let us go back in time and share the thoughts of Apostle Paul regarding the elements that constitute true and genuine love,

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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” 1 Corinthians 13 (NIV).

In these scripture verses Apostle Paul provided the most well rounded, yet concise explanation of the elements of love (agape-Greek) in the New Testament. He enumerated how such love is expressed by anyone who has it. That love is enduring, always protects and trusts, does not delight in evil, among others. Love ought not go back rehashing wrongs, even we claim to have forgiven the person that wronged us. Actions mean nothing if they are not motivated by selfless love. True love is a consistent attitude of personal humility and devotion to the good of others which direct the glory to God. Such love creates a chain reaction of love in us (1 John 4:19).

God’s love which is expressed through our love for one another begins when we allow our natural understanding of love to be replaced with the truth of the word of God on what love truly means, and what it entails. By gauging our love for others with the word of God, we can know if we truly belong to God and if his love controls our attitudes, actions and motives.

My prayer is that as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, we would seek to have love become our identifying characteristic as it is God’s, and that this love would be demonstrated not just in pious words, but in good works. This one short scripture text sums it up, “Let brother love continue” (Hebrews 13:1, KJV).