What Is Love?

by Greg Quinn

July 16, 2024

I watched the movie, A Night at the Roxbury (1998) many times. With my son Justin, my nephews Anthony Junior, Andrew and Austin, and admittedly by myself. It is what most adults would call a silly movie, with Will Ferrell and Chris Katan engaging in some crazy situations to meet women at a nightclub called the Roxbury. The theme song of the movie was entitled "What Is Love". 

We all search for love. But do we really understand love? We say, "we love ice cream" or "we love old classic Mustangs" or "we love the Tennessee Titans" (or whatever is your favorite NFL team). We love this shirt, we love this song, we love this place to eat, we love this food, and we love this gun (and this one and this one). But do we really know what love is? What is love?

The most correct answer is that God is love. It is his character. In fact, the Bible says that Love is truly what God represents; it is who He is.

To truly love we must first know God's love. Without knowing the love of God, who IS love, we cannot really understand and experience love on our own. God was here from the beginning, God created everything, the Word (Jesus) was with God in the beginning, and through Him everything was made. And with creation and God being the epitome of love itself, love came into the world as the epicenter of God's own nature.

John 1:1-3 (NIV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Probably the most quoted scripture is the one in John 3:16. God loved us so much that He gave his son Jesus to die for our sins so that we could inherit eternal life.

John 3:16 (NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Love is not spelled S-E-L-F-I-S-H. We show we love others by modeling how Jesus loved us. We love others through the example of the Bible, and by first recognizing we have the capacity to love because God first loved us and gave his Son Jesus for us to save us from our sins, because of His great love for us. Therefore, we too should exhibit love to others.

I've preached many weddings and I as well as many other preachers have included part of 1 Corinthians 13 in the wedding ceremony. We may do many things, but love is the most important. Of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest.

1 Corinthians 13 (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The more we come close to God the more capacity we have in love for others.

1 John 3:16 (NKJV)
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1 John 4:10 (NIV)
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:19 (NKJV)
19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Ephesians 3 (NKJV)
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 2 (NKJV)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Jesus gave us a commandment to love one another. It is not an option.

John 13 (NKJV)
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Jesus summarized the entirety of the Scripture with 2 commandments. Love God. Love people.

Mark 12 (NKJV)
30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' [l]This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

And probably my favorite scripture is this one found in Romans 8. Nothing can separate us from God's love.

Romans 8 (NKJV)
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So what is love? How do we answer this question? How do we obtain that which people seek more than silver and gold, more than health, more than money? How do we understand love? How do we obtain love?

What is love? First, we realize that God IS love. And because God loved us, He created us, made us in His own image, and created us to live forever in Heaven with Him. But the first man (Adam) sinned and because God is love, and true love is perfect and holy, God could not accept our sin. For generations mankind made sacrifices of animals to bring us back to the relationship that He intended from the beginning. God created through time one true pure sacrifice, His own son Jesus, who left the glories of Heaven and came to earth to become sin on our behalf, through His sacrifice on the cross, and victory over sin and death by His rising from the dead, so that we too could live a victorious life on earth and inherit eternal life in Heaven with God and Jesus. So it is because of God's great love for us that He saved us. And through the teachings of Jesus, God's own son, we also know how to show God's love to other people.

God's love is a free gift. God loves you. There is nothing you can do to earn it. You just receive it.

How do we accept love? We first admit that we are sinners, we have done wrong. We recognize that there are penalties for sin. Then we accept through faith that God loves us, God created us, and God sent his son Jesus to die in our place, to take the penalty of sin off us and onto Himself. We accept that Jesus is the Son of God, He came to earth and lived a pure life without sin as an example to us, and He died in our place on the cross, and rose from the dead as victorious over sin and death, so that through our belief in Him we too would have everlasting life. And again inherit through this free gift the relationship with God as originally intended. We therefore accept God's love to us through the sacrifice of Jesus.

How do we share love? We share love by learning of God and His ways and do what we have been taught. Read the Bible to understand how God loves us and how we fit into His plan. Listen to preaching. Go to church to learn more. Study the Bible. Listen to Christian music which tells of God's goodness and pleases our soul. Get Christian friends who can help you in your journey of love as those who are walking alongside you. And as you know and grow, then simply share what you have learned with others around you. 

Sharing God's love is really no different than sharing your experience in a good restaurant, sharing your feelings about other things in your life, sharing how much you like this gun or this caliber. You experience God's love, then you can share God's love.

What is love? How do we accept love? How do we share love? Think on these things as you live out your days. Understanding "what is love" will create in you a new life, a new passion for living, a new reason to get up every day, a new purpose in life. A better life on earth. And eternal life with God in Heaven.

God loves you and so do I.

Greg Quinn