What is Love?

Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised. Song of Solomon 8:7

What is love? God is love. God is not only described in Scripture as One who loves His Son and the world, but actually as love itself. The very description of love is God! Love has always existed; before everything else was created, love was always there. The message of the Word is actually a message of love. In fact Jesus concluded the law into parts; To love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength and To love thy neighbour as one loves himself.

Love has however been particularly emphasized in I Corinthians 13; the whole chapter generally describes love. The bar has been raised so high, that everything else is described as nothing, if there is no love. Every gift, every good deed, every sacrifice is said to profit one nothing if love does not exist. The reason I believe that this is for you and I, is because perfect love can only be found in God and through God. The bible says that we love God because He loved us first 1John 4:19. The perfect love is therefore "not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1John 4:10. None of us by our own strength can be able to show this kind of love, but when we know God this is what He expects of us. I feel this chapter is best read than described, it is "amazingly overwhelming". Take a look

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ²And though I have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. ³And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. ⁴Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶Does not rejoice in iniquity(sin), but rejoices in the truth(Jesus); ⁷Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (I believe this #7 verse is love for God or that is based upon God)." 

^"8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. (I believe this refers to The Second Coming of the Lord, as was the first). ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (Spiritual growth, based and trusted in the wisdom of God). ¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. ¹³And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (This describes the faith based on Jesus and the hope found in Him, hope today and hope for the future after His second coming. )" 1 Corinthians 13.The notes in brackets are mine. We can also pick out from all this that Love is a choice and not a feeling that comes and goes.

A pastor mentioned that one of the greatest attacks in this generation is on self-love. In that, how can we be able to love our neighbours as ourselves, if we do not have love for self. Is this where we begin? Not the kind of love that we worship ourselves, but the kind of love where we know who we are in God, through Jesus Christ and that we are already loved by God. Now, this is where we begin.   

Because music speaks volumes; "God of Everything" by Viwe Nikita