The definitions of love.
Already we have encountered some great
descriptions of love. Love fulfills the
Law. Love binds together all the
attributes of Christ (Col. 3:12-14).
Love encapsulates the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Love completes the growth of the Christians
into Christlikeness (2 Peter 1:5-7). All
of these, and more, help to “define” love from the Bible’s point of view. As Vine indicated, it’s not that the world
does not talk about love a lot; it is that the world is always, ultimately
wrong about love. So with that in mind,
here are a few brief, yet huge, descriptive statements of “love.”
·
1 John 4:8: We began a few days ago noting that
the entire Bible is filled with love and that we could study every page, every
chapter and always be learning about the love of God. Well, here’s another, similar statement: GOD
IS LOVE! Want to define
love? Just define God. Which is, of course, a silly statement, other
than it tells us that whatever God is saying, doing, planning, it is marked by
love. For Christians we know that even
the trials of life are the love of a heavenly Father for His beloved children
(Heb. 12:5-6).
·
2 John 1:6: This is love, that we walk
according to His commandments. Jesus
made a statement to His disciples based in this description of love: If you
love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15).
Is this egotism on Jesus’ part?
Is this the pride of a dictator?
No! This is love from God as
described in Ex. 34:6-7:
The
LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and
the fourth generation.
·
1 Corinthians 13: Here is another description of
“love” in a listing of its many facets.
It reiterates what Vine said, that love can only be known from the
actions it prompts. We have written
several posts on this chapter and will encourage you to review these (8/21-9/14,
2018 at Matthew 6:33
(ronandcindy.blogspot.com).
·
John 15:13: And now we come to “love personified”:
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his
friends. Again, we cannot even begin
to reach the end of this, for the cross itself is the center of The Mystery of
God, the work that God has been doing, is doing, and will do until it is fulfilled
in the exaltation of Christ.
Nevertheless, in our next post, we will pick up on this theme.
As the hymn declares,
Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast
unmeasured, boundless, free.
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