Do You Love Love?

The ring’s been on my finger over 50 years. When he gave it to me, I was  afraid it would slide off and I’d lose it because my finger was so slim, so small.  It’s kind of grown onto me now. Putting it on or off takes some planning and a jar of hand cream. But its value to my heart has grown each year. Its meaning and commitment has been proven through laughter and tears.

This Valentine’s season, I’ve heard the expression, “I love love.” Perhaps, you’ve heard it too.

I get it. I mean most of us love love, right? We enjoy the heart-throbbing, floaty, breathlessness of its attraction. But as with many other words that we use so very freely, our use of the word is at best … mushy.

I love pasta. I love the color blue. I love a good book. I love a day at the beach. I love decorating the house. I love snow falling, coffee in the morning. And, I love football…You get the gist. It’s a fickle choosing at best.

So in a world where the word “love,” blankets all sorts of stuff, doesn’t it seem odd that defining it can be so un-lovingly belligerent at times? Batted like a tennis ball, shot like an arrow, “noun-ed” and “verb-ed,” it’s both accusatory and desirable. Is it fleeting or eternal, disposable or renewable?    

Webster defines love using words like strong affection, tenderness, admiration, and devotion. These are all feelings we engage with when we talk of love, sentiments that stir our hearts and whet our appetites.  

The long-haul kind of love, love that bridges rough, ick, and tragedy, is often made to seem less achievable, tangible, and sadly, less desirable.

The Bible speaks a lot about love. God’s definition, demonstrated by loving us so dearly that He gave His Son to die for our sins, that selfless love, doesn’t match ours. The depth of God’s deep love marks all other loves as mere shadows of something far deeper and greater than all our earthly descriptions. Its standard is high, pure, and perfect. Jesus described it as laying down His life.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  (John 15:13 ESV)

Jesus Christ taught real love, demonstrated it, lived and died because He loved. So how is it, that the love we so readily claim or disclaim in others, sometimes plagiarizes Jesus’ words, without the vaguest knowledge of what He truly meant? I mean, do we as Christ followers sometimes do the same? Are we speaking and living from the deep well of Jesus’ love or just reacting to a definition created by the world? By whose definition do we love love?

Paul, chosen, not because of his love for Jesus but by Christ’s merciful love toward him, testifies to true love.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV)

Our challenge as Christ followers is to mirror Jesus’ love through our growing knowledge of the Lover of our souls. He defines it. Without Him at the core, we twist and manipulate it to mean what we desire. As we become more acquainted with Him through His Word, we grow more deeply in love with Him.

The brother of Jesus noted that before we can reciprocate Christ’s love or His life and actions accurately, we must first embrace His love.

“We love because He first loved us.”  (1 John 4:19 ESV)

While Valentine’s Day proclaims all we need is love, mixed in mushy sentiments which claim that to love love is enough, we need to consider in what ways we may have exchanged Real love for a false version. Love interpreted by the world rather than the Word always falls short.

My love for Jesus should be so fervently evident that it defines all my other loves.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8 ESV)

Oh yes, I love love. As I look down at my hand swallowed up in the big hand of my husband I recognize this is the hand of the man I chose. More importantly this is the man God chose for me. The smoothness of our youthful hands and slender fingers, are hard to recognize. They are lined, thick, and spotted.My love for Jesus should be so fervently evident that it defines all my other loves. Share on X

I am grateful for the love of Jesus above all other loves, a love that undeservedly chose me. His love trains me each day to love better this man by my side, not just because we love love, but because He first loved us.