Can Love be Defined?

 

Ephesians 3:19

Can love be defined?  Many in our culture have defined love as having a sexual relationship with another person, but even a dog can do that with no regard for the bitch he is breeding, and it is rare to find the young person who understands love when trying to talk the other person into sex.  The “Love” word is used, but is it appropriate, is that person wanting the best for the other party?  When I look at God’s definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13, it states that love does not insist on its own way.  In fact love puts the other person’s value and what is best for them above all else.  Lust will say anything, do anything, it is always about getting it’s needs met, with no regard for the object of its lust.

We live in a world that has exchanged the word “like” for the word “love” and I as well as you have been guilty of miss-using the world “love”.  Out of our mouth comes, I love pie, and I love that car, and I love my children, and I love God, and how can God or anyone else understand what you mean by love?

Verse 19, reveals these words; “and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  I’m 68 years young and I’m just as warped as many of you, but my hearts desire is to know the love of Christ.   How can you know something that is so carelessly defined in our culture?  I only know one source that has stood the test of time; God’s word, the Bible, and it is where I found this treasure.  1 John 4:7-10, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his only Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

A few of us might die for someone we greatly value, but on Memorial day we honor men and women who have given their lives, and the highest honor this country gives is the Congressional Medal of Honor, and many of them gave their life to save the lives of others they served with.  But Romans 5:8, states, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  “Love” put aside all, you and I, Scripture states, were enemies of God, sinners, but the Father redeemed us, by the blood of His Lamb, Jesus Christ, and to know that, and act on it, is to be filled with all the fullness of God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice