Do you remember the movie from the 1970’s, Love Story? You know the one with Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal. “Who?” you ask. For those of you in the younger generations, google it. It was the Romeo and Juliet movie for our modern generation. There is a line from that movie that gained great notoriety; “love means never having to say you’re sorry”.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that for time on end we have been trying to define love. In the 70’s there were these cartoons in the paper at least once a week called “Love Is”. There were so many definitions and examples of love. But love isn’t a cartoon in the paper or a movie that makes you cry.
True love isn’t a feeling. It’s not something we fall into and out of. After being married for forty-seven years I know that for certain. Love is an act of will. Love is being loving on the days you don’t feel like it, love is never giving up.
God’s love never fails – God just doesn’t have love for us, He is love! If we want to know what love looks like and how it acts, we simply look at God. Love is patient and kind; God doesn’t keep score, He doesn’t keep a list of things that we do wrong. He isn’t envious or boastful either.
“Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. 10 True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins. 11 That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other.” I John 4:7-11 ERV
God loves us enough that He won’t push Himself on us; He didn’t make us puppets but people with a free will so that our love for Him would be from the heart and not forced or coerced. He wants relationship with us not mindless servitude.
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” I John 4:16 NLT
What is love?…Love is the very essence of God.