"And now these three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love."
-1 Corinthians 13:13
I have explained why hope is important, why faith is important, but why is love important? Love is the greatest of these three. Why? Many people know love is important, but it is one of those things we just know and can't explain why. Sadly, one of the reasons we can't explain love is because there are so many definitions about it. But I am only going to discuss two definitions (or categories) of love.
Lets first take a look at Adam and Eve. They lived in perfect fellowship with God. Everything was perfect amongst God's creation. Everything Adam and Eve did was worship to God- every sight, every step, every smell was an act of worship and thanksgiving to the Lord. Then, the serpent comes along and changes Eve's perspective about the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3:6- "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." Eve was only able to see this after her perception was changed by the serpent. She saw it as pleasing and good when it wasn't. And as a result, the perfect fellowship with God was broken. The rest of the generations to come leading up to Jesus was characterized by renewing the gap and separation created from this one event. We see as a result of this one event, earthly love was introduced into the world.
What is earthly love?
"People will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boastful, proud,
abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love,
unforgiving, slanderous, without self control,
brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous,
rash, conceited,
lovers of pleasure
rather than
lovers of God."
-2 Timothy 3:2-4
Earthly love is a love of pleasure. It is a deception guiding us away from the true love. We see that Eve was a victim of this earthly love when she was deceived to think the fruit was pleasing and good. It is a love of pleasure.
How does culture display earthly love? Think about it. There are many instances. For example, listen to mainstream music now a days. What's the message? Get rich quickly or maybe its the boasts of one person because he or she is rich and successful or maybe its for the love of another person. Advertisements appeal to emotion saying that we could do it or we have control of our own lives or we can be a certain image. These are deceptions guiding us away from the true love. These are loves of pleasure.
Culture has transformed the meaning of love and therefore, love has lost its potency or its significance.
Think about it, we say we love everything! We say we love a chair or some food and then with the same tongue we say we love the Lord. Surely, we don't love a chair the same way we love the Lord, but because culture has merge the meaning of love, there is no way to distinguish this with our words. In the Old Testament Song of Solomon, there were three Hebrew words to discuss the word love expressed in that book. There was: raya, ahava, and dod. And then in the New Testament, there is the Greek word agape which is used to describe the love of Christ in comparison to the other Greek words for love in the New Testament philia and storge (the word eros is not used in the New Testament). Think about how we only have one way to say love. There is not another word in our culture to express the love of God in comparison to the love of a chair. Our culture has merged these different loves into one.
Love might have lost its potency by earthly standards but not by Heavenly standards. We know there is something other than what culture has to say about love. We know there is something other than earthly love.
There is sacred love.
Now I use the term 'sacred' love because sacred in Merriam-Webster's dictionary means 'dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity.' And thats exactly what our love for God is! It is set apart from earthly love meant to worship Him!
Now if sacred love models what Adam and Eve had in creation before the fall and they were created in the Father's likeness, then sacred love is meant to emulate the love that our Father has for us. And since this is so, I am going to define sacred love by describing what earthly love is not or the attributes of God's love.
It is important to understand certain attributes of God's love. Now there are many attributes but I will only discuss three.
God's love is unconditional. We do not have to meet any condition to receive His love in contrast to the performance-based earthly love. Now this unconditional love is not a love that saves or justifies the sinner. If it was a love that saved or justified the sinner, then everyone would be saved since God loves everyone. Unconditional love is a love that loves us before we meet the condition of sin. Now there is a difference between status and condition. A sinner's status is sin if they are not justified by faith. A believer's status is righteousness because it was imputed on us through the death of Jesus Christ. But there is still the condition of sin on believers. But praise God that in 1 Peter 4:8 it says, "love covers over a multitude of sins!" Now God loves everybody (don't get me wrong), but by saying He has an unconditional love means that He loves us despite the condition. I'm not saying He doesn't love the sinner whose status is sin. But by saying God unconditionally loves the sinner, it is like saying God loves the sinner because he or she sins. God unconditionally loves the righteous because though they have the condition of sin, they were chosen, appointed, elected, or called to eternal life (Ephesians 1:4-5, Acts 13:48). Our faith is a result of the election and when we choose to believe, our condition of sin becomes replaced by love because love covers over a multitude of sin! Thats why in 2 Peter 1:5 it says: ". . . add to your faith goodness: and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, LOVE." He loves us unconditionally because through His unconditional love, our condition becomes love.
God's love is constant and unfailing. This is IMPORTANT and to stress the importance I will give Scripture: Exodus 15:13, Psalm 6:4, Ps. 13:5, Ps. 18:50, Ps. 21:7, Ps. 26:3, Ps. 31:16, Ps. 32:10, Ps. 33:5, Ps. 33:18, Ps. 33:22, Ps. 36:7, Ps. 44:26, Ps. 48:9, Ps. 51:1, Ps. 52:8, Ps. 62:12, Ps. 85:7, Ps. 90:14, Ps. 94:18, Ps. 107:8, Ps. 107:15, Ps. 107:21, Ps. 107:31, Ps. 109:26, Ps. 119:41, Ps. 119:76, Ps. 119:88, Ps. 130:7, Ps. 138:2, Ps. 143:8, Ps. 143:12, Ps. 147:11, Isaiah 54:10, Lam. 3:32, Hosea 10:12. Why is this important? I've heard so many people say that they feel so distant from God and they can't see Him. They approach God like His love is not constant, which is uncharacteristic of His love. His love is constant! Some people might rely on the earthly definition of love to describe God's love, and they treat His love like it is something of this earth. Earthly love dies, not God's love. This is important to understand because this is a fundamental difference between earthly and sacred love.
God's love is sacrificial. John 3:16, 15:13, and 1 John 4:16 clearly explains that God sacrificed Himself because He loves us so much. God broke perfect fellowship with Himself by giving us His Son to die for us on the cross. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus says: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God had to deny this perfect fellowship for us. God had to turn away from Himself for us. God had to sacrifice because He has a sacrificial love.
This is everything earthly love is not. This is sacred love.
I have drawn the lines between earthly and sacred love. In Part 2, I will discuss recognizing the battle between earthly and sacred love.
Now if sacred love models what Adam and Eve had in creation before the fall and they were created in the Father's likeness, then sacred love is meant to emulate the love that our Father has for us. And since this is so, I am going to define sacred love by describing what earthly love is not or the attributes of God's love.
It is important to understand certain attributes of God's love. Now there are many attributes but I will only discuss three.
God's love is unconditional. We do not have to meet any condition to receive His love in contrast to the performance-based earthly love. Now this unconditional love is not a love that saves or justifies the sinner. If it was a love that saved or justified the sinner, then everyone would be saved since God loves everyone. Unconditional love is a love that loves us before we meet the condition of sin. Now there is a difference between status and condition. A sinner's status is sin if they are not justified by faith. A believer's status is righteousness because it was imputed on us through the death of Jesus Christ. But there is still the condition of sin on believers. But praise God that in 1 Peter 4:8 it says, "love covers over a multitude of sins!" Now God loves everybody (don't get me wrong), but by saying He has an unconditional love means that He loves us despite the condition. I'm not saying He doesn't love the sinner whose status is sin. But by saying God unconditionally loves the sinner, it is like saying God loves the sinner because he or she sins. God unconditionally loves the righteous because though they have the condition of sin, they were chosen, appointed, elected, or called to eternal life (Ephesians 1:4-5, Acts 13:48). Our faith is a result of the election and when we choose to believe, our condition of sin becomes replaced by love because love covers over a multitude of sin! Thats why in 2 Peter 1:5 it says: ". . . add to your faith goodness: and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, LOVE." He loves us unconditionally because through His unconditional love, our condition becomes love.
God's love is constant and unfailing. This is IMPORTANT and to stress the importance I will give Scripture: Exodus 15:13, Psalm 6:4, Ps. 13:5, Ps. 18:50, Ps. 21:7, Ps. 26:3, Ps. 31:16, Ps. 32:10, Ps. 33:5, Ps. 33:18, Ps. 33:22, Ps. 36:7, Ps. 44:26, Ps. 48:9, Ps. 51:1, Ps. 52:8, Ps. 62:12, Ps. 85:7, Ps. 90:14, Ps. 94:18, Ps. 107:8, Ps. 107:15, Ps. 107:21, Ps. 107:31, Ps. 109:26, Ps. 119:41, Ps. 119:76, Ps. 119:88, Ps. 130:7, Ps. 138:2, Ps. 143:8, Ps. 143:12, Ps. 147:11, Isaiah 54:10, Lam. 3:32, Hosea 10:12. Why is this important? I've heard so many people say that they feel so distant from God and they can't see Him. They approach God like His love is not constant, which is uncharacteristic of His love. His love is constant! Some people might rely on the earthly definition of love to describe God's love, and they treat His love like it is something of this earth. Earthly love dies, not God's love. This is important to understand because this is a fundamental difference between earthly and sacred love.
God's love is sacrificial. John 3:16, 15:13, and 1 John 4:16 clearly explains that God sacrificed Himself because He loves us so much. God broke perfect fellowship with Himself by giving us His Son to die for us on the cross. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus says: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God had to deny this perfect fellowship for us. God had to turn away from Himself for us. God had to sacrifice because He has a sacrificial love.
This is everything earthly love is not. This is sacred love.
I have drawn the lines between earthly and sacred love. In Part 2, I will discuss recognizing the battle between earthly and sacred love.
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