The scriptures have a lot to say about what love is, and it’s more than romance and candles and walks on the beach. Much more.
For example, Jesus talks about love as a self-sacrificial expression of devotion that extends as far as laying down our lives for those we call our friends.
“Greater love has no man than this, to lay down his life for a friend.” (John 15:13)
In other words, love is more than a feeling, it’s an action. It’s something we do. So if we hope to practice the sort of love that Jesus speaks of, we should expect that it would cost us something a bit more than a box of chocolates, or a dozen roses to fully express.
This might sound like what we need to do is something dramatic or painful. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can lay down our lives for our friends in very practical ways. It may be as simple as doing something that our friend wants to do, even if we’re not especially interested in doing it. Or, it can be expressed by spending time with those we love and not becoming distracted by our smartphone the whole time.
These are simple ways to put others ahead of ourselves and lay aside our selfish desires in the process.
The scriptures also tell us that love is very “others” focused. As Paul so beautifully phrases it:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Cor. 13:4-8)
As we read passages like this one, it’s not hard to see that the Scriptures define love as something very challenging for most of us. If we’re very honest, most of us fall pretty short of this high standard of love. This is why Jesus told us that “apart from me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
But the good news is that we really can learn to love this way if we abide in Christ. Jesus tells us in the same passage above that those who remain in Him will bear much fruit, because He is the vine and we are the branches.
So, rather than become discouraged about the high standard of love we see in the Bible, we should rejoice because this is exactly how much God loves us, and it’s also the same sort of love that we can learn to share with others as we continue to follow Jesus in our daily lives!
