If there is an English word that has been misunderstood is love. Love as we use it in day today communication is very different from what it is from the Christian point of view and especially the Biblical point of view. In this article we will give the biblical definition of love. We will explain from scripture how this love can be practical in the life of every believer. We will show from scripture that since the fall of man. God has wanted to reproduce this love in man. Come with us and let see how God defines love and how He plans that love to be our character.
The Bible defines love in the following ways:
a) God is love.
b) Love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10)
From the above definitions of love from the scriptures, there are lessons we can learn about Christian love.
a) God is the origin of love and love is God. That means if we want to understand love we should let God to teach us what love is.
b) When Paul concludes that love is the fulfillment of the law in Romans thirteen verse ten. What does he mean? Paul starts in verse eight and concludes in verse 10
“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this you shall you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet” and if these is any commandment, it is summed up in this saying. “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” Roman 13:8-10 (NASB)
That when God spoke to the whole congregation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. The message was only one love. God as He starts in Chapter 25 of the book of exodus to give them instructions on how they should handle each command. He was telling them love thy neighbor as yourself. In the New Testament Jesus Christ, God incarnate, revealed this when he was asked, what is the greatest commandment?” He summarized the Ten Commandments into two:
a) “You shall love the lord your god with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, this is the great and foremost commandment.
b) The second is like it “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”
c) Jesus Christ concluded:
d)
“On the two commandments depend the whole law and the prophet” Math 22:40 (NASB).
In the other words Jesus concluded that this is the message the law (Moses) and all the other prophets both major and minor were communicating to man. That God is love and He wanted us to love Him and love one another.
This is the love that produces the character described in 1st Corn 13:4-8:
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek it’s own, it is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails….” (NASB)
Having understood what the bible defines love to be; then we give our understanding of Christian love.
“This is the total character of a Christian as he/she carries day to day responsibilities on earth. It is the character with which a Christian should be known. A self-sacrificing character for the well being of others”
This character is at war with our fleshly desires. It is completely against what we are. It is impossible by ourselves that we cannot count the wrongs done to us, that we can love the truth. The character of 1st Corinthians 13:1-13 is a character that we are given. It can never naturally originate in us. This love comes from God. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and Lord, a new birth took place, in your spirit God entered. We say this because the bible teaches that man is a three part being:
“Now may this God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1st Thess. 5:23 (NASB)
After confirming from scripture that man is a three part being. It is important to know that God communicates to our spirits.
“The spirit Himself testifies to our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16) NASB.
It is clear from the above verse that God communicates to our spirit not to our soul or body. This is spirit to spirit communication. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, our dead spirits were quickened (made alive), they started responding to the heavenly communication from the Holy Spirit himself. This is confirmed in the following passage:
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them were too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) Ephesians 2:1-5 (NASB)
Our spirits were made alive together with Christ. The spirit that was working in us was removed. The Holy Spirit of God took control of our own spirits. Our mind needed to learn how to behave with the new master. Indeed sin has been conquered but our minds and body remained in the dreamland of the former master (the spirit of evil). Here there was a conflict between the new master and how the old one had programmed us to behave. Our minds needed to be renewed to operate according to the Holy Spirit. This confirmed in the following passage:
“Therefore I urge you, brethren by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, and do not be confirmed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and pefect” Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
Our minds need to be transformed from the character it had confirmed to. The character had conformed to the loving self. It had to be transformed from loving ourselves to the character of loving God. The character is transformed to love our neighbor as myself. God only can do this in us. This character described below:
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous Love does not bring and is not arrogant does not ac an unbecomingly; it doesn’t seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things.
Love never fails…” 1st Cor 13:4-8 (NASB).
This character is produced in us by the Holy Spirit. The bible is very clear in this matter:
“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law…. Now these who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Gal 5:22-24 (NASB)
The fruit of the spirit is Love…. Love is not the fruit of our will power. It is not the fruit that man can produce. This leads us to our second observation.
Christian love is the character that is produced in us by God himself. This character we get it from God and we maintain it by God’s power not our power. It is the Lord working in us to do according to His will.
When our spirit is regenerated, our mind is transferred by the word of God to our new identity. Then the body is crucified and the result is a character that is described above.
God has given us an example of this love. In that when we were hostile to him. He demonstrated his love and gave Jesus Christ to redeem us from darkness. The cross is the best demonstration of this love:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
This the love that God wants produced in us. This love is Agape love (the character of heaven).
Jesus Christ said “Love the Lord your God with all your with all your heart, soul and mind Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. Imagine here Jesus Christ is talking about agape love and He is mentioning the mind; which is in the soulish realm. What God wants for us is his character to be reproduced in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, as indicated in Galatians 5:22-23. This is the character we need so that to stand before a holy God when he comes. The Good news is He is the one who gives us this character. We thank for this. That he has given us what we need when He when he comes to take us home.
God bless you as you consider His love
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