What Is Biblical Love?

What is love? What is this mystical idea called love?

Love is the greatest ideal. It's the greatest value. Everyone loves love. Whether it's an atheist dreamer, a New Ager, Universalist, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or Agnostic Marxist, it's all about love. Love, love, love. Love is the answer, right?

The Bible says "God is love." 1 John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

But what is love exactly? Let's check the English dictionary first, just so we know where we're starting from:

According to dictionary.com and it's entry for "love" love is:

1.a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2.a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

3.sexual passion or desire.

Interesting. Simple enough, words like "affection" and "profoundly tender passion." And what about the Bible? What does it say about the L word?

Well, according to Strong's Concordance, New Testament Lexicon the word used in 1 John 4:8 for love is transliterated from Greek "Agape."

The definition/semantic range for "agape" is "

brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence

love feasts

If God is love, then he must in fact, love us. It could be said about God that his most defining attribute would be his capacity for affection (love) toward his children. That's you.

In addition to God loving us, his children, he also came as Immanuel, Jesus Christ, and gave two supreme commands, both of them in direct regard to love. Remember?

Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus replied: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”(bold added for emphasis)

God loves us, and he asks us to love him in response. In addition, he says to love others (including ourselves). One could say that Christianity itself is believing in Jesus Christ and his work, and loving God and people. It's really that simple.

But loving is sometimes difficult, isn't it?

I remember when I was young I had a lot of love to give. It seems to me that when we are young we have a very high capacity for love. Maybe as life goes on that supply, that treasure trove of love is depleted. Sometimes our parents neglect us, or abuse us. Sometimes tragedies happen early on in life. The girl we got the crush on tells us to get lost in no uncertain terms. Friends leave us. Parents fight.

Then on into adult life, and other things happen. Time and again things happen, and life starts to feel like a drudgery. Bitterness takes the place of love and openness. Pain replaces forgiveness with anger. We lash out at those closest to us when they hurt us, in a desperate attempt to protect what little love and self esteem we have left.

It's a tragedy, of course it is. I know every single person reading this can relate in some way to enduring pain, and being drained of their ability to love. I know for certain I'm not alone in that one. It's difficult. It's very difficult. But if we are to be Christian brothers and sisters, we must relearn how to give love and receive love.

The following is a letter a dad wrote to his daughter while she was young, regarding the impact the world might have on her in the future. I think it illustrates very well the love we have when we're young and how can sometimes lose it:

"Dear Daughter,

I hope you never notice the magazine rack at the supermarket.

I hope you never see the billboards on the highway or the ads on the side of the city bus.

I hope you never learn about Hollywood and the fashion industry.

I hope you never listen to pop music.

I hope you never walk down the makeup aisle.

I hope you never hate your own appearance.

I hope you never pick up the habit of putting yourself down whenever someone compliments you.

I hope you never feel the pressure to physically conform to the perverse standards of a disordered world.

I hope you always stay exactly as you are right now. Innocent, carefree, unencumbered, pure.

But these could only be the hopes of a foolish idealist like your Dad. I can rub the genie lamp and make a thousand stupid wishes, but you will grow. You will start to learn about the culture that surrounds you. You will form opinions about yourself. Your vivacious, bubbly happiness will give way to more complex emotions. You will develop new dimensions.

In these times, here in your very early life, you only cry because you're hungry or tired or you want me to hold you. One day, though, your tears will come from a deeper place.