WHAT IS THE NATURE OF BIBLICAL LOVE?

 

We hear people say, “If you love me, you will accept me as I am and not judge me according to an ancient book.”

This raises the question, “What is love?” The Bible says a lot about love:

• 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 1:6; John 14:21-24)

To love God is to obey Him. Abiding in His Word (John 15:7-14) is the only way we can love. I can love my wife in many ways - by giving her a gift, rubbing her feet, and by doing the dishes. However, I cannot love God in these ways - only by abiding in His Words.

This is also the primary way that we love others:

• Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 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 5:1-3)

How do we know if we are truly loving others? If we are loving God according to His Word, we are also loving others.

Jesus often loved others by warning them instead of affirming them. He warned the Pharisees by exposing their denials and false hope:

• “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life...Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:39-40, 45-47)

Sometimes love needs to be tough, as any loving parent can tell us. For the sake of their children, they are required to confront. This isn’t easy. We’d rather be people-pleasers. We want to be liked, but this strategy might be a betrayal of love, the ultimate welfare of the other.

The truth can hurt, but it can also be spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15).