CONTROVERSY V: What about Love?

(This is a new article series that I am "trying out" with my readers. These are intended to be thought-provoking. Please see their Intro Article: Jan. 26, 2008)

Have you noticed that we (and boy have I caught myself more than I’d like to admit) have an odd tendency to use the word “love” a lot? We use it for food, “Oh I just love chocolate!” We use it for sports, “I just love football games, especially the Super Bowl!” And then, occasionally, not as often as we should, we, blushing, fidgeting, and looking at the ground, will use it to express our feelings towards a “loved one,” “I love you…”

Do we really know what that word means? It’s a slippery topic. We will either take one stance of discomfort, or we will associate it with the Hollywood-ized hype of “sexualism.” But what is love?

Well, we know what the Word says about it:

“God is love.”(1 Jn. 4:8)

Ok, good so far. What else does it say:

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 Jn. 4:18)

Whoah! Now what does that have to say about the discomfort that we feel when we try to express our love to the people who need to hear it the most from us? Well, what else do you have to say, John:

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 Jn. 4:10)

Ah, the real kicker…in other words, we really don’t know what love is unless we learn is from God’s example…

Love must be defined in the context of God’s love for mankind, sending His Son to die for him so that man might have fellowship with Him for eternity. Therefore, true love can only be defined in the context of God’s love for man. God is a good and perfect God, Who is under no obligation to reach out to anyone, who is unworthy of being in His presence. However, God, in His goodness, reached down to those of no worth, the sinners, then identified Himself with their predicament, taking on the very form of a man.

God, Author of Creation, God of all glory and honor, gave up His precious Son to rescue man from his filth, bringing the unworthy into a covenant relationship with Himself, which is a relationship that ensures eternal association with no possible of disengagement. Love is a goodness, sacrifice, and bond that bears little reason or logic in the mind of a rational human being, and can only be relegated to a supernatural majestic God, Who is and behaves in the unfathomable.

No wonder we have such a hard time knowing when and how to use the word “love”! We can’t know love unless we know God, and He is still unknowable!

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8)

So then, how can any of us know God, really?

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26)

“The Scripture says, ‘What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny].” (1 Cor. 2:9-10 AMP)