What is Love?

English translations of the Bible do not do justice to the biblical concept of love, nor can they. The English language contains one word, love, but Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, expresses the same abstraction through four individual words:

Four Greek Concepts of Love

1. Storge (familial or empathetic bond)
2. Eros (sexual or romantic love)
3. Philia (brotherly affection, or friendship)
4. Agape (steadfast, unconditional, sacrificial love).

Consequently, any linguistic expression of love is ambiguous, and its boundaries nebulous. Such conditions necessarily incapacitate the word, disintegrating its power, which is unfortunate because love is an essential biblical doctrine. A thorough understanding of love is vital to even marginally comprehending the Gospel. Further, the Greatest Commandment is love:

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  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.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:34-40 ESV).

How can one truly love God with his entire being, or love his neighbor, if he cannot define love? Whence does love come? What is the telos, or ultimate end, of love? How should love manifest itself in the lives of believers? How can Christians learn to live a life of biblical love? A careful analysis of Scripture can and will answer these questions.

Who or what is the source of love? Love flows from God. “For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love”(1 John 4:7b-8 ESV, italics added). And because “everything good comes from God” (James 1:17a ERV), it follows that God is the unique source of love. Thus, God and love are inextricably joined, to the extent that love cannot be defined apart from God, nor God fully known without knowledge of his love. However, the question remains: what is love intended to accomplish?

To what end is love the means? Ultimately, Christians are called to love for the glory of God, but it is also possible to delight in loving.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Q1

Q. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The authors of the catechism justify their statement with many Scriptures, of which two prominent proofs are from Paul’s letters:

1. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36 ESV).
2. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4 ESV).

Everything a believer does should primarily be to glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31). It is by love that people can recognize the faith of a Christian (John 13:35), which should point to the object of his faith, thus making the Lord’s name great.

However, a secondary, or subordinate (or perhaps logically necessary), purpose of man is to “enjoy [God] forever.” In Psalm 36, King David, speaking of God’s people, sings, “They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights” (Psalm 36:8 ESV). And Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35 ESV).

Obeying God, which involves loving as laid out in Scripture, is the greatest joy known to man. When one obeys, he is drawing water from the wells of salvation with joy (Isaiah 12:3) — only then is one satisfied; only then is one living as he was created to, rather than living in stubborn rebellion; only then is one experiencing the one true freedom, which is full submission to the will of God. So it seems glorifying God is both the ultimate purpose and the supreme joy of life — glorification is the cause and joy is the effect.

If God created love for his glory, how should it be demonstrated in the lives of his followers? Love should be manifest in believers as it is in God. The term “Christian” comes from the Greek, Christianos, which literally means “Christ follower.” Christians are called to follow Christ, to be imitators of him (1 Corinthians 11:1). Hence, God should be the primary exemplar of biblical love.

But if“no one has ever seen God” (John 1:18 ESV), how can anyone properly live a life of love? It would seem man cannot be blamed for his ignorance, but, because God, in his infinite wisdom, mercy, and grace, makes himself known to the world, through Creation, through his Word, and through the Word, who is God Incarnate, man is left without excuse (see Romans 1:20). Therefore, it is the necessary responsibility of believers to study God’s revelation to understand the biblical mandate to love. With the prayer that God would open their eyes to behold wondrous things from his Word (see Psalm 119:18) in mind, it is the Christian’s duty to endeavor to know.

Scripture is sufficient for such a venture. Both the account of Jesus’ life viewed through the lenses of Trinitarian doctrine and his teaching clearly delineate the constitution and application of the biblical directive to love. A look at Jesus’ life reveals the characteristics of a loving lifestyle. In perfect love and obedience, Jesus humiliated himself and lived the only sinless life.

“Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (2 Phil. 2:6-8 ESV)

He lived a servant’s life. He did not consider his life his own but lived to teach, heal, and lead. And ultimately, he died for filthy sinners. He taught that “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV). The apostle Paul later pointed out  the bewildering nature of Christ’s sacrifice:

“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:7-8 ESV).

Men are not Christ’s friends — they are his mockers and revilers, yet he took on their sin and died for them. Beyond that, he forgave his persecutors, an idea so foreign to sinful men.

Of course, the Trinity sheds a new light on Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. Nothing compares to the unity within the Godhead. It is a community of perfect love, fellowship, respect, and humble submission. In fact, every godly relationship on earth is merely a mirror of the Trinity.  In view of the sublime fellowship and love Christ had with God, the Cross takes on an entirely new significance. He condescended and became acquainted with grief. The sin he assumed created a chasm that separated him from God. The absolute despair of this separation cannot be fathomed by anyone who has not known the immaculate fellowship of the Trinity. His anguish is so incredible that he cannot help but cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46 ESV).

The lesson is painfully obvious and convicting to anyone with ears to hear because it reveals man’s shortcomings. It inspires hearts of flesh (not stubborn, unrepentant hearts of stone, but new, fresh, repentant hearts of flesh) to aspire to a deeper love than what is found within families (storge), friendships (philia), or sex (eros). These are blessings from God and are good to the extent they are used for God’s glory, but they come naturally through common grace, much like every good thing found on this earth. Even non-believers share in these blessings, though always selfishly and abusively. Christian love is more profound; it is not theoretical, but physically active and operative. Christians should live lives overflowing with “labor prompted by love” (1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV). The love exhibited by Christ on the Cross was unwavering and undeserved; it was the same steadfast, unconditional, selfless, sacrificial love (agape) to which Christians are called.

Though nothing about Jesus’ life is contrary to his teaching, his words offer substantial wisdom as well. Jesus teaches that love is the greatest command in Matthew 22 (see above), going as far as to declare that it is on love that all the Law and the Prophets depend (Matthew 22:40). While such a statement is certainly radical, it is true.

Consider the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Upon reading, it is evident that each command is predicated on love. The first four commands express a vertical love with God. The last six mandate specific horizontal acts of love with others.

Another teaching of Jesus, perhaps more famous, is the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). Jesus tells the story in response to “a lawyer” who wishes to justify his lifestyle, who desires to limit what is required of him. Jesus’ response is revolutionary. He had already taught his followers to love their enemies (Luke 6:27), but here he gives those enemies a name. He tells the story of the failures of both a Jewish priest and a Levite to love and help a fellow Jew in dire need. He tells of a Samaritan who came after and “had compassion” (Luke 10:33 ESV), bandaging the man and paying for any needs he might have. In the context of the times, this is insane. It is comparable to a black slave helping a white slave-owner and selling what few possessions he owns for the slave-owner’s wellbeing. But the message is clear: Christ-followers are called to love everyone, even Samaritans. A question naturally follows: how can Christians embrace and live out a love that is utterly revolutionary and contrary to the sin nature they inherited at birth?

Knowledge is useless without application, and knowing what love is accomplishes nothing if it is not applied. And again, how can sinful men possibly apply this fantastic love when their hearts exclusively breed malice, hate, and envy? It is only by grace and the Spirit that Christians learn to love. No one can exhibit the love of Christ until they are made alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:5), which is a gift of pure grace. If someone is to receive new life and see the Kingdom of God, Christ teaches he must be born again of the Spirit (John 3:1-8).

And when one receives this Holy Spirit, who is in very nature God, the Spirit lives in him (Romans 8:9), for “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in [Christians]” (Romans 8:11a). Further, the Spirit takes root and bears fruit in the lives of those in whom he dwells, and “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV). Paul, the same inspired author who wrote of the fruit of the Spirit, elaborates on the first of the fruits (or the firstfruit, most worthy of sacrifice), love in 1 Corinthians 13. The chapter is preceded immediately by a chapter on spiritual gifts and their role in creating diversity within unity, which is no coincidence. Having expounded the importance of diverse spiritual gifts in the previous chapter, Paul explains the need for love in chapter 13. He declares that all is worthless apart from love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Indeed, he ventures even to say that love is the greatest of the fruits and gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). In addition to shared salvation in Christ, love is the glue that binds Christians together. Hence, if biblical love is essential to the Christian faith, and if “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6 ESV), will not God perfect in his followers a heart of love?

Conclusion

Therefore, the biblical call to love is a call for Christians to a love that is from and of God. It is a call to a galvanizing, effectual love. It is a call for Christians to lay down their lives as Christ did. It is a call that can be fulfilled only by the Holy Spirit’s power working in and through God’s people. Therefore, it is a prayer that should always be on the hearts and minds of Christians, that the Spirit would transform them by the renewing of their minds (see Romans 12:2) and equip them to love as Christ loves. It is a call the Church desperately needs the world to hear.

The world, both within and without the Church, needs to recognize that their lives are not their own, that their time, money, talents, comfort, and very lives are but blessings that should always be used for God’s glory, and may, at any time, need to be sacrificed for the sake of the Kingdom. And, hopefully, when this happens, God will give the world eyes to see that there is great joy in suffering with Christ, dying with Christ, and ultimately, living with Christ (see Romans 5:3-5). Amen.