No Greater Love: What is Love?

Before I get into this new series, I have to commend our students and the 8:37 students on a job well done at the spaghetti dinner they put on Friday night. The SGG Youth Department hosted a spaghetti dinner this past Friday. It was donation based and all proceeds went to the youth groups to fund future events and growth projects. It was a learning experience and it was great to see the students serve.

Now, the new series...

All this month long we are talking on the concept of LOVE. During this Valentine's Holiday season where we see a commercialized version of love, used to make the greeting card companies rich, I want to take the time to teach you what TRUE LOVE really is!

Today in Hollywood we see love defined in several different ways...


The fairy tale...
The love/hate romantic comedy...
The hopeless nerd in relentless pursuit of a cheerleader...
The butterflies in the belly...
The clammy palms and nervousness...

The FEELS!


But, how can we define LOVE?

The definition we find for LOVE at dictionary.com is as follows...

Love
noun
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. sexual passion or desire.

But does Webster's definition match up to God's definition of love?

Decide for yourself...

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT)

What is love? I think Paul summed it up very well. But is the summary all there is to it, or should we search for a deeper understanding on this passage?

I've heard a story this week in my AFCM certification course that inspired the way I look to define things.

There was a man who took a block of wood and carved it into a beautiful statue of an elephant. Every detail was perfectly crafted down to the wrinkles in the elephants skin, the flecks in it's eyes, and the hairs at the end of it's tail. Then one of his friends asked him when he had started sculpting and asked him if he had been formally trained. The man who sculpted the elephant responded that he had NEVER done a sculpture before and had NEVER been trained. Astounded and confused, his friend asked him how on earth he created such a fine sculpture. His response was simple. "I looked at the block of wood and I removed everything from it that didn't look like an elephant."

Sometimes for us to fully figure out what something IS, we also have to figure out what it ISN'T.

So what ISN'T love?

Love isn't proud or boastful. Love isn't rude. Love is not irritable or unforgiving. If we study the Corinthian chapter of love (13), you'll see astounding evidence that love is NOT an emotion, but something that takes action. Pride comes from emotion, irritability is emotion, bitterness (or lack of forgiveness) is caused by hurt feelings and emotions, LOVE is NOT an emotion.

Reviewing the dictionary definition of love, along with Hollywood's example, I find it is entirely flawed. Love is not a noun, but a verb. Love is an action that you choose to carry out, not a fickle emotional feeling that can change in a whim. Hollywood has made "true love" out to be romance and butterflies, flowers and hot dates, attraction and sex. Now in their proper context, none of these things are wrong, but out of the context of marriage they can not only be sinful, but can be physically and mentally damaging. Making the concept of love into an emotional thing isn't just unbiblical, but it cheapens love in the eyes of the public and allows it to be viewed as disposable and exchangeable. This is why a harsh majority of marriages end in divorce. Once the "feelings" die off, the couple feels that they have fallen out of love and look elsewhere...

Friends, there is no such thing as falling out of love, only choosing not to be in it anymore.

Love is a choice for anyone to be in. Make no mistake, emotions play a major part in it, but you choose to act in love and you choose to fight for it once the emotions fade.

If this lesson causes even one of you to understand that relations with the opposite sex are sacred and not to be thrown around like the cheap representation that Hollywood feeds us, then I have done my job. In the coming weeks I will attempt to teach you how this view of love applies to more than just a relationship with a spouse, but should also be applied to everyone you encounter. Think on this throughout the week and try to make a conscious effort to show love to others, even when your emotions don't want to.