What is … Love?

There have been innumerable words written and spoken about love. Exploring even a dictionary definition of love uncovers many ideas and concepts that span a deep affection for someone, a romantic connection, or even a strong positive feeling for an object. It is obvious even as we scratch the surface, that there are multiple types of love.

As we look deeper, we can recognise that love, for most people, in most places across time and space consider love to be the supreme ethic. The words written about love point to this reality, yet what is the true substance of love?

In our current culture the kind of love that is dominant in our cultural and creative discourse is a love of desire, and affection. Love is something that we feel. It happens to us. In our culture we can fall in, and out, of love. The endless conveyer of Hollywood romantic comedies and Netflix Bridgerton series reinforces this affection element. This view of love has some darker elements as affection moves to desire and love becomes something to consume and take, shifting quickly to lust and selfishness.

Here at Green Point Christian College, we believe that the Bible characterises love very differently than our current culture. The love we read about in the Bible is not about affection or desire, but about something very different.

In what is likely the most famous passage on love ever penned, the apostle Paul writes that;

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour 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. Love never fails.

In all these statements about love we can see that none of them are about how an individual feels. There is no reference to affection or desire. This characterisation of love is about actions we make toward another. Love is about the other person that is the object of love and actions that move out towards them, not the source. It is about how we make another person feel so much more than how they might make me feel.

If it is possible, Jesus goes even further when He speaks about love, He talks about sacrifice. In John He says;

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Jesus’ love for us took Him to the Cross. His desire for us to have a relationship with Him meant He was willing to sacrifice Himself.

The image of love we have from the Bible is radically action oriented and others focused. It is much more about a willingness to give up our individual desires and to put the needs of others first. This willingness to serve others and to love them is a harder path. However, it leads to connection, community, belonging and feelings that are far stronger and more resilient than the superficial feelings