Defining Love: How God has Called us to Love

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ~1 Timothy 1:5

Around Valentine’s Day, there’s a lot of talk about love. But it seems these days that there are a lot of different definitions of love, and it can be confusing to know how love applies to our own lives. Should we be focused on accepting people no matter what? Should we be seeking romantic love? Should we be helping others so that they will help us as well? For us as believers, we must recognize that although these are all common practices of “love” these days, they are all according to the world’s definition of love—with the individual person of self at the center. This is not the way we as believers are called to love. We are called to love as God loves. In order to love as we have been called to, then, we would do well to actually understand what love is—as defined by the LORD. All of what we need to know can be found in the Scripture, so what I would like to do today is let the Author of Love speak for Himself through His Word—firstly about His love, then about how exactly we as His disciples are commanded to imitate His love. 

God’s Love — God is love. (1 Jn 4:16)

• The LORD has abundant love: The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” … For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; ~Exodus 34:6, Psalm 103:11
• The LORD’s love is steadfast and causes His people to be steadfast: For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. … When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. ~Psalm 21:7, 94:18
• The LORD’s love is eternal—it has existed forever and it will continue forever: Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. … Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! … But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, … The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. ~Psalm 25:6, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 103:17, Lamentations 3:22
• The LORD’s love is trustworthy: But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. … O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. ~Psalm 13:5, 130:7
• The LORD’s love is of inestimable value and He deserves glory because of it: How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. … Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! ~Psalm 36:7, 115:1
• The LORD’s love sustains and satisfies His people: As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! … Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. ~Psalm 40:11, 90:14
• The LORD’s mercy and compassion come from His love: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. … For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. … In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer. … But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. ~Psalm 51:1, 103:11, Isaiah 54:8, Ephesians 2:4-5
• The LORD’s love is good — in fact, it is better than life: Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. … Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. ~Psalm 69:16, 63:3
• The LORD’s love comforts and gives life: Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. … In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. ~Psalm 119:76, 88
• The LORD is unique is showing this kind of faithful love: “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart,” ~2 Chronicles 6:14
• The LORD has forgiven us and sacrificed for us because of His love: Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. … Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. … Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. … But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. … In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ~Isaiah 38:17, 43:4, Micah 7:18, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10
• The LORD has predestined us to be His adopted children, and thus His love leads Him to discipline us to lead us to repentance: In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. … See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. … Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. ~Ephesians 1:5, 1 John 3:1a, Revelation 3:19
• The LORD has chosen us not because of our merit but because of His gracious love: For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ~Deuteronomy 7:6-9
• We can come into the LORD’s presence through His love, and He gives us peace by His love: But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. … The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing. ~Psalm 5:7, Zephaniah 3:17
• God has poured his love into our hearts: and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ~Romans 5:5

Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit has poured His love into our hearts, how exactly are we called to live out that love?

The Love of God’s Disciples — We love because He first loved us. (1 Jn 4:19)

• First and foremost, our love, especially for our God, must be whole-hearted and selfless: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. … And He said to him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ~Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37-39
• We ought to find the ways of the world repulsive, but genuinely love and keep the good commands and precepts of the LORD: for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. … Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. … I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. … Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. … I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. … My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly. … Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate. … If you love me, you will keep my commandments. … Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. … Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. … For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. ~Psalm 119:47, 97, 113, 127, 163, 167, Amos 5:15a, John 14:15, 1 John 2:15 Romans 12:9, 1 John 5:3
• We are commanded by the LORD to love kindness, and to love one another as He has loved us: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? … This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ~Micah 6:8, John 15:12
• We must tenaciously cling to Christ’s steadfast love as the foundation of our life, and allow His love to control and fill all that we do: Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. … So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. … So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. … Pursue love. … For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died. … so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ~Proverbs 3:3, Hosea 12:6, 1 Corinthians 13:13-14:1a, 2 Corinthians 5:14, Ephesians 3:17-19
• We are to do many things in love: With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. … Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. … And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. … that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love. … Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. … Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. ~Ephesians 4:2, 15-16, 5:2, Colossians 2:2a, 1 Timothy 4:12, Jude 1:21
• Our love should be abundant, as the LORD’s is: And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment. … and may the LORD make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you. ~Philippians 1:9, 1 Thessalonians 3:12
• True love necessitates forgiveness, and we are called to love and sacrifice for others, even our enemies: Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. … Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. … Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. … Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. … But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. ~Proverbs 10:12, 17:19, 1 Peter 4:8, John 15:13, Matthew 5:44
• Our faith works through our love by serving one another in the Spirit: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. … For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. … But the fruit of the Spirit is love. … for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. … Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. ~Galatians 5:6, 13, 22a, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 John 3:18
• Our love is our greatest witness by which others will know that we are Christ’s disciples, so all that we do must therefore be done in love: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all peoples will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. … Let all that you do be done in love. ~John 13:34-35, 1 Corinthians 16:14

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24)

These verses are simply a few from the many in Scripture all about love—the LORD’s, and ours. If all quoted here seem overwhelming, that’s okay—in fact, that is good! Let us allow the unfathomable depth of God’s love to overwhelm us until all we can do is worship Him and desire to have His love in us toward others. And then, be encouraged that all we must do to have His love toward others is to daily seek to abide in His perfect love through wholeheartedly following Him…then His joy will truly be made full in us, and as we abide we can rest in the fact that nothing can ever separate us from His love. 

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. … If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. … For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD. … Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ~John 15:9-11, Romans 8:38-39, 1 John 4:7

(All Scripture quotations from the ESV.)

Written by NBB Alumna: Bethany Boone