What is love?

Love is often defined in terms of what we “do” but I believe we need to be careful not to confuse the evidence of love with love itself. I Corinthians 13 tells us: “1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (NIV).

Verses 1-3 are clear that what we do, if not undergirded with love, is nothing. Thus, love is not the action, love is the motivation; the heart of the matter. Paul goes on to describe love based on the evidence of its presence, but again, he does not assume to define love here, just to describe love.

One thing we can know for sure is that love is vitally important. Verses 8-13 explain that love is everything, the greatest thing, the main thing.  Verse 13 also explains that three elements abide together: faith, hope, and love.  If in my heart I lose hope, I begin to lose faith and I lose my connection with love, and my ability to love.  If I lose faith, I cannot love and I lose hope.  And, if I do not love, I have not faith and no hope.  In order for these three centerpieces of life to remain in me, they must abide together in my heart.  Hopelessness, despair, negativity, doubt, faithlessness, and self-centeredness are all enemies of love.  

I am going to suggest that love is the presence of Jesus. Further, I am suggesting that without Jesus, there is no love. I am saying that love is not an action, it is His presence. Most importantly, I am saying that love behaves as His presence behaves. In other words, love looks like love.

What does Scripture say about these contentions? I John 4 states: “7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (NIV).

Alright, so we love each other because God’s love lives within us. Our actions, if motivated from love, will present as Jesus presents Himself to us.  In the mirror of Jesus, we can see what love creates.  

The cross is the ultimate expression of love - not love itself, because that love existed in the heart of Christ from the beginning of creation - but the product of love, and the evidence of love, true to His heart, given freely for us.