Unity

God is Love: How do we Define Love?

 "G-d is Love", but how do we define it? Dictionary.com defines love as "an intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties". Often this "intense affection" comes from a sexual attraction for that other person. We love other people, or we say we love other people, when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. Notice that a key phrase in the dictionary definition of love is the phrase "based on". This phrase implies that we love conditionally, in other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them. How many times have you maybe said, "I love you because you, because you are  so cute," or "I love you because you take really good care of me," or "I love you because you, you're fun to be with"?

Our love is not only conditional, it is also based on emotion. We love based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. The divorce rate is really high in today's society because husbands and wives supposedly stop loving one another-or they "fall out of love". They may go through a rough patch in their marriage, and they no longer "feel" love for their spouse, so they call it quits. Evidently, their marriage vow of "till death do us part" meant absolutely nothing at all to them.

Can anyone really comprehend "unconditional" love? It seems maybe the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God's love in our lives. Parents continue to love their children through good times and bad, and they don't stop loving them if they don't meet the expectations we may have for them. Parents make a choice to love their children even when them consider them the worst creature on earth or just unlovable; their love doesn't stop when they don't "feel" love for them. This is similar to God's love for us, but as we will see, God's love is different, than the human definition of love to a point that is hard for us to  ever understand.


G-d is Love: How does G-d Define Love?
 
The Bible tells us that "G-d is Love" (1 John 4:8). But how can we even begin to understand that? I know I can't. 

There are many verses in the Bible that give us G-d's definition of love. The most well known verse is John 3:16, "For G-d so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." So one way G-d defines love is in the act of giving, but what G-d gave (or should we say, "who" G-d gave) was not like a Christmas present but G-d sacrificed His only Son,Yeshua, so that we, who put our faith in His Son, will not spend eternity separated from Him. This is an amazing love, because we are the ones who choose to reject G-d, yet it's G-d who fixes, and turns the separation through His personal sacrifice, and all we have to do is accept His gift.

Another great verse about G-d's love is found in Romans 5:8, "But G-d commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In this verse and in John 3:16, we find no conditions placed on G-d's love for us. G-d doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you; " neither does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." In fact, in Romans 5:8, we find just the opposite. G-d wants us to know that His love is unconditional, so He sent His Son to actually die for us while we were still unlovable sinners. We didn't have to get clean first, and we didn't have to make any promises to G-d before we could experience His love. His love for us has always existed, and because of that, He did all the giving and sacrificing long before we were even aware that we needed His love.


G-d is Love: It's Unconditional

G-d is Love, and His love is very different from any love we have. G-d's love is unconditional, and it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son, who died for us, to restore that relationship so we can walk with G-d and call him Father now.