WHAT IS LOVE?

Jesus had summed up all of the commandments of the Bible with just one word, “love”:

• "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)

But what is love? Today, love is understood as indulgence. According to this understanding, to love means to always affirm the other person - whatever they think, choose, and do. It means being a people-pleaser. It has also become a way to prove that we are “virtuous.”

However, is this the Biblical understanding of love? Certainly not! While love must be devoted to the ultimate good of others, this sometimes requires us to practice tough love - discipline, criticism, and correction. Jesus, the exemplar of love, certainly was never short of criticism (Matthew 23). For Him and the rest of the Bible, love was a matter of conformity to the Scriptures. John understood Biblical love for our neighbor in terms of our love for God, the keeping of His Word:

• And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. (2 John 1:5-6)

John defined “love,” whether towards God or towards other, as a matter of keeping His commandments. Consequently, as we keep His commandments, we are loving others:

• By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3)

How do we know when we are loving our brethren? When we walk in God’s commandments!

But didn’t Jesus instruct us to not judge? Not really! Instead, He instructed us not to judge if we are spiritually blind, as if we have a log in our eye. When we abide in darkness, we cannot see well enough to correct anyone:

• “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”(Matthew 7:5)

Seeing rightly requires a willingness to step out into the light of self-examination. Paul described this as being spiritual:

• Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

Correcting others requires humility, a willingness to see how vulnerable we too are to sin’s temptations and to repent. Such a willingness is a bulwark against the darkness of a haughty spirit.

Besides humility, love requires wisdom and discernment. While we must share our wealth wisely, governmental entitlements have destroyed many communities. What had been intended as love served as a poison of dis-empowerment. In this case, “love” became a matter of blind indulgence. What then is love but the pursuit of the other person’s ultimate welfare.