C.S. Lewis once said,
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
We live in a world that has a misconstrued philosophy of what love is, and often times we can find ourselves defining love by society’s definition, rather than defining love according to the word of God. In order to comprehend the definition of love, we must seek the one who ultimately defined love in the most vulnerable state possible, God.
Love is…God!!
1 John 4:19 says in the New Living Translation:
“We love because God loved us first.”
God is love! We can love Him because he loves us despite our frail humanity. He loves us despite the mere fact that some individuals would never love him in return.
His love is deeper, wider, and greater than the what world perceives love to be. Jesus exemplified love by dying on the cross for our sins, that we may have life. Jesus displayed a vulnerability that no one could live out, dying for the sins of people. Although God could have chosen to NOT bear the cross, he picked it up and was scared for our iniquities.
Love is…God! His love is incomparable, undeniable, and never-ending!
Check Your Pulse Moment: In order to understand love and how to love others the way Christ loves us, we must seek him through prayer and studying his word.
How can one know love or love others if they themselves don’t understand what love is?
Loving others more than yourself can be a challenging endeavor at times, but with God, love abideth much.
The Bible says:
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
(1 Peter 4:8 NIV)
Love is… God!!
You see the love of God can change your perspective about others. The love of God allows you to forgive people that have deeply wounded you. The love of God heals broken relationships. The love of God is what love is ALL about.
God is the definition of love. We can find plenty of definitions in dictionaries across the world or online about the word love, but the true definition of love is found in his word.
So here is a starter to our 4 part series ” Love is…”!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of “Love…is” series, where we will go more in-depth about the love of God and how we are to live out his love here on earth!