All About LOVE!

Love is all over the place. It is defined in the movies, on television, by our parents, by our peers, by our mentors, by our religious beliefs. In fact, there are so many definitions of love, how can we even begin to really know what "true" love really is? Well that is the purpose of starting this series on love. A chance to look realistically about what love is and then see how we can apply it to our lives.

Before we get started, it is important to know where these definitions of love are coming from and why I am choosing to pull them from this source. I am a follower of Christ (the definition of "Christian" is Christ-like or to follow in Christ's footsteps). The Bible is the source of wisdom and guidance for Christians. It is also called God's Word. The Bible is written down by men but the content is 100% inspired by or breathed by God. That means there is nothing in the Bible or excluded from the Bible that God didn't intend to be or not be written in it. (2 Timothy 3:16) Because the Bible is inspired by God, we can believe that what is spoken in it is an honest and true represtentation of God, His characteristics, His desires, His plans, His truth. The Bible tells us that God is the Creator of everything around us (Genesis 1). If God is the Creator of mankind, then He must have had an intention or plan in mind for man. That brings us to the first things we are going to look at about love.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, He responded it is to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. (Matthew 22:37-38) What is love? Well here we see that love is commandable; because of this we can know what love is not--an emotion. Emotions are not commandable. You cannot tell yourself to be happy when you are sad and expect your body to respond to that. I like the definition of emotions from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. It defines emotions as "a mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling." What does that mean? It means that emotions are dictated by our circumstances and are spontaneous, not controlled. That paints a great picture that shows how emotions cannot be commanded. They are not based on a choice but on what is happening around us and how we respond to those things. But, Jesus said that loving God is a commandment. Well, if love is not an emotion, what it is?

Love is a choice. Love is caring so deeply for another person or entity that you intentionally choose to protect the well-being of that person. Because it is a choice, it is something we do regardless of the outcome. Choosing to love God with our heart, soul and mind is offering all of ourselves completely to God....giving Him complete control and authority over our lives! How can we do that and why would we want to? Well, because God showed His love for us first when we didn't even care who He was! God loves us so much that it was not acceptable to Him that we couldn't be in a great, personal relationship for all eternity. What keeps us from having a relationship like that? Sin. Sin is choosing to do the opposite of what God wants in our lives. All of us sin. The result of sin is separation from God for eternity. God created us to be in a relationship with Him and when we sin we turn our backs on that relationship. Whenever we make choices there are natural consequences that result. For instance, if I choose to eat ice cream, one consequence is that my mouth will get cold. Or if I train for months to learn a certain discipline, the consequence might be that when I need to use that discipline effectively I will. Like shooting free throws in a basketball game. Cause and effect is the natural cycle of life. So, the natural consequence of sin is that we must be punished. Because God did not want us to be punished (because that punishment meant eternity without Him), He decided to take the punishment in our place.

Ryan often talks about how sometimes his mom would get upset about something that had happened. She would ask two of her kids if they were responsible and if they both said no they would run to the third sibling and tell them they needed to say yes or they would all be in trouble. So, to keep them from all being miserable, the third sibling would agree to take the punishment. They would take turns doing this because sometimes the real perpetrator might have been a cousin or friend but there was no way for his mom to know that. So, in essence, one sibling would take the punishment for all three. That sibling sacrificed himself or herself for the others. That is what Christ has done for us except that we really do deserve the punishment for our sins. But He stepped in and said punish me. Jesus was sinless. He was perfect. He is God in the flesh. The only thing that is greater than sin is God. So, the only person who could take our sins upon himself instead of us having to to is God. Jesus said true love is when a person would lay down his own life for his friend. That is exactly what He did. And He did it for every person from the beginning of creation until the end!

All that to say that is how I can trust God with my entire life. That is how I can trust that if I choose to love God above all else in my life, I can know that He will be choosing to watch out for my best interests at all times. If He has already desired a relationship with me so much as to die in my place, how can I not trust that He won't desire good things for me.

Now loving God means that I choose Him to be the most important thing in my life. It means that I choose to spend time with Him and get to know Him and the desires of His heart. It means that I choose to do those things that bring Him joy. It means that I will defend Him when others dishonor Him. It means that I line my desires up with His desires. When we choose to love someone, it means that we must set aside our desires and seek to provide their needs. God doesn't really need anything from us because He created us, but He has shared His desires for His creation in His Word so I can know how to support the success of those desires.

Well, this is a lot for the first blog, but it is important that we understand that love is not the butterflies we feel when we see or think about a person. Love is not the desire to be sexually active with someone. Those things are all emotions and feelings. No, love is so much more than all that. It goes deeper and wider than those temporary feelings and pleasures can ever go! If you have yet to experience that kind of love (and God's love is the most perfect love we can ever experience!!!!!), then let me know and we can talk about how you CAN experience true love!