Defining love through God's lens
What is love? I imagine if you asked a hundred people you’d get a plethora of different answers. Their response would be based on their paradigm, the filter or lenses through which you see life. For some it would be based on their feelings, or what they’ve been taught or influenced by such as family, school, religious institutions, the media, etc. For others, like me, the filter is the Word of God- the Scriptures.
I would imagine that most who would read this article are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13, often called the Love Chapter. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing (ESV).” The rest of the chapter goes on to define the characteristics of love.
We also know that God is love. It’s the core of His character. That being true, then love should be defined by God and His Word.
At every service of my congregation, we repeat something called the Shema. Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear,” and it carries the idea of not just to listen, but to listen and obey; “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Of course Jesus also quoted this and added, in accordance with Jewish tradition, loving your neighbor; “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? ”And he said to him, “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 first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
It is the Lord who defines love, so if we are His followers, we should love His way. Often this means we have to love people whom we disagree with or might call us “haters,” if we don’t condone their lifestyle.
Ephesian 4:14-16 "so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
When we choose to define love according to God’s standards it may cause tension with some, however it is ultimately the way we can truly love God and our neighbor.
Bob Buford works with Heritage Christian Counseling Ministries
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Defining God's love through scripture
