February is love season where everyone celebrates their loved ones in their lives, especially their romantic loved ones.
But have we ever stopped and asked ourselves “what is love”?
We can get caught up in the romance of love, but is that all love is?
We even say the phrases “love is love”. But do we even know what that means?
The world desires to be loved but do we even know what is truly means?
Today’s Verse of the Day 1 John 4:8 will break down the meaning of love.
We think that love is limited to emotions, feelings or words, but it goes beyond that.
Love is a Person.
Loving God and knowing God goes hand in hand.
You cannot say you love others if you don’t know who God is, because God is love.
The same way you cannot say you know God and yet only love those who are nice to you, because God loves everyone.
As you can see, love is not buying flowers for your partner, buying your loved one a special gift, writing a love note to them or sending them a “good morning” text. Although, that is all cute. But that’s romance not love.
The world has equated romance and love as the same thing, but they are not.
And on top of that you cannot merely say “love is love”.
That doesn’t explain anything.
It’s like saying “good is good”. But the thing is we will still be questioning what is good?
The same way, everyone in the world have questioned, what is love?
Well, I can tell you what it is not.
Love is not romance; love is not love and love is not a feeling.
The answer to what love is, in fact we have been asking the wrong question.
This is because love is not limited to a “what”, but it is a “who”.
Love is God!
To some that may be a strange concept to wrap your head around, especially because we have grown up in a culture where we are told “love is love” or when asked about love, the question is posed as a thing than a Person.
But God is the root word to love.
This means that when we say, “I love you”, you are actually saying “I love you the way God loves you”.
So, whatever you do or say out of love, you are doing and saying it out of the love of God, because God is love.
However, are you being intentional about what you say or do out of love?
Does it mirror the love God shows us?
Like the Verse of the Day tells us that if you do not love then you do not know God.
Deeply think about this.
You can think that you are loving people. But are you?
To truly know if you are loving people then you must know God.
This doesn’t mean to ‘know of’ God but to have a relationship with God.
When you are in a relationship with someone, you truly know what makes them who they are.
Therefore, when we study what makes God who He is and how He loves us then we have the ability to love others the way He does.
Not by our own way or thoughts on what we think love is or how to show love, but through the Spirit of God living inside of us who produces the fruits (characteristics) of God’s love through us (Galatians 5:22-23).
This means that you cannot love someone and not have a relationship with God.
So, to those who believe they are operating in love without God, it is not love.
You need God to know how to love others.
Knowing God, we are then able to understand the concept of love further.
Now that we know who Love is, we can then do the “how”.
To find out how to love, check out our Faith Friday blog post on “How to Love”.
I hope this has encouraged you to reflect when next time you say or show love to someone, to stop and think whether you are operating in the love of God.
And remember the only way to love is through having a relationship with Him.
If you want to love others correctly and to experience God’s love, receive or rededicate Jesus as your Lord and Saviour of your life.
Know and believe that the Father showed His love to us by sending His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins and resurrected from the grave, so that we can have eternal life in Him.
We get to now have a relationship with God and experience His love in our lives.
Amen!
Stay Blessed,
Divine L.
Hi, I am Divine L., your sister-in-F.A.I.T.H., who is passionate about discipling Christian girls to be a walking embodiment of Jesus Christ in their daily lives and to help young girls and woman become who God destined for them to become. It is a great blessing to welcome you to the F.A.I.T.H. sisterhood!