There are many definitions of love. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of books written just on the subject of the word love. In the Bible alone, there are 7 words that are all used to make the word love.
The word is so flippantly used in today’s world. When you can say I love my Chaco’s and I love my wife and somehow people understand both even though they surely have different meanings.
So what is love?
Something that I like to do is read 1 Corinthians 10:13, known as the love chapter. But instead of reading it normally, you replace the word love with your name each time it says it. Here’s the passage that you do it with.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
If you read this with your name instead of love, how accurate is it? Does it truly describe you?
There are many kinds of love, but if every person truly sought to love and read this passage every single morning to try and imitate it, I think our world would be a different place.
Love doesn’t love to get something back. Love in its purest form loves not because of what it gets, but because of what it is able to give.
Love is willing to sacrifice short term comfort for long-term gain for the healing and helping of others.