The 5 W's Of Love…a Return To Love

Title: The 5 W’s of Love…a return to love

Scripture: Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

In the New International Version, various forms of the word love (love, loved, loves) can be found over 720 times! That’s a lot! Anytime we are presented with any word that occurs in any of its forms that frequently in the Bible, we need to realize that God is trying to tell us something.

There are many other words, topics, doctrines, themes, or subject matter that occur just as frequently and others that occur less frequently. As we mature spiritually, we should pay attention to those as we study the Bible in context. Some examples that we should include in our study of the Bible cover the doctrines of the Spirit of God, the Son, and the Father. As we progress spiritually, we should study the worship of God, and look deeper into the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of prayer, and even those less visible areas, such as the doctrine of man.

In Romans 13:10, Paul presents a short case for love. It is another piece of a very easy puzzle. The pieces are strategically placed throughout the Bible at just the right location in scripture to corral our thoughts and bring the focus back onto the five W’s of love.

These often repeated definitions, explanations, and, at times, pleadings, easily persuade us to pay close attention to this word. When we scrutinize these presentations in scripture we can easily find out how love can impact our walk with God, how it can shape our testimony before the world, how it can intercede in our families, and how it can bless our neighbors, and our country.

Romans 13:10, gives us an indication why it is mentioned so many times. Though the verse is short and quick, it can go a long way in shaping just who you are and how you get along with others in the world. Additionally, we can dig a little bit deeper in other locations of the Bible to amplify and support. Let’s explore the five W’s of love:

Who

Why

What

Where

When

The WHO, in my estimation, is the most important of the five W’s. And, in order to know just Who the Who is, we have to leave the Book of Romans behind for a little while, and look to 1st John, chapter 4:8. There, the Apostle John says:

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

There we have it, God is love. When you love someone, the love that you express to them is not actually you that is expressing it, but God expressing it through you. The reason I say this is because of what it says, God is love. Since God is love, any love that is expressed by me, is love that I have within me that is manifested through the love that God has for His creation. Now, in order to continue to explain this, we’ll have to move into the next W, WHY.

God is love. That is what it says. That is the Who of love. And, it could also express the WHY, but, 1st John 4:19 helps to expound upon that and give us a deeper reason as to Why we love.

19 We love because he first loved us.

That seems easy enough to understand. The Who that I love is God, and the Why I love is because He first loved me.

Yet, some people will still try to go further in their Why, and ask the question, “Why does God love?” This brings us to an even basic question that many people ask, “If God knew there would be sin in the world, why did He create man?” Because God is love. If you try to pick that apart, or try to dissect that, you cannot help be confronted with the perfection of God. Which, in circular reasoning, would bring us back to: Since God is perfect in love, He created the world and the people in the world.

Many questions concerning the Bible can be answered with one of two answers, love or sin.

Why did God create man? Love

Why is man like he is? Sin

Why do people do what they do? Could be one or the other

Why did Cain kill Abel? Sin

Why did Jesus come to this world? Love

Why did God create languages? Sin

Why did God send the flood? Sin

So you see, everything that is good is of God. That is why we say (from Galatians 5:22-23), that the fruit of the Spirit is 22 …) … love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.