The definition of LOVE, according to the Oxford Dictionary is :
- “a very strong feeling of liking and caring for somebody/something, especially a member of your family or a friend
- a strong feeling of romantic attraction for somebody
- the strong feeling of pleasure that something gives you
The Bible says that God is love
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. –
1 John 4:8
and because we are made in God’s image we crave and need love as humans
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27
There are 4 unique forms of love that are found in Scripture. They are communicated through 4 Greek words – Eros, Storge, Philia, and Agape and are characterized by romantic love, family love, brotherly love, and God’s divine love.
Question to consider: Do you know your Love Language?
From the worlds view love can be considers similar to affection as it is a huge part of how we express love and described as openness, honesty and respect, understanding, non-threatening or not dominant. Lisa Firestone co-author of Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships, often says that the best way to think of love is as a verb. Love is dynamic and requires action to thrive.
Opposite of love is loveless. without love. detached, unaffectionate, uncaring. lacking affection or warm feeling. unromantic.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
From vv 1-3, why do good spiritual acts gain “nothing” for us if we do them
without love?
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13 : 4-7
Read this passage again and put “Jesus” in where “Love” is. What a great descriptions of Jesus.
From the list above do you see or recognize any traits that you can work on to improve?
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:8-12
Questions to consider:
- This love seems so beautiful and simple in this passage. Why is loving like this
so difficult? - When you compare the way you love others to this standard in 1 Cor 13, where
do you fall short? - How does the gospel give you hope in your failure to love people as Christ loves them?
The Greatest command
Matthew 22:37-38 and Deuteronomy 6:5 ‘Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all you heart with all your soul and with all your mind…” These are found in Old Testament and New Testament.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
Things to consider:
- We need to develop our 1st love.
- Love is a decision not just a feeling.
- The heart is a vital organ of our body, we should live our lives in praise of Him.
- Soul – our spirit inside us / what we must use to obey and please Him.
- Mind- our ideas/ thought. Each action or plan should be giving to God if we love Him. Think peace/ hope and good (1 Corinthians 13)
- Is our love for Him born out of gratitude?
WHY DO WE LOVE??
1 John 4:19, NIV: “We love because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19, ESV: “We love because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19, KJV: “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19, NASB: “We love, because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19, NLT: “We love each other because h=He loved us first.”
1 John 4:19, CSB: “We love because He first loved us.”
