Love is one of those words that conger up a whole lot of nuances. No two people would likely define “love” in the same way. Many would say that love is a feeling or an emotion, but I beg the differ. That warm fuzzy feeling that most people call love is pretty ambiguous. It comes and it goes, and it burns and it wanes, often for no specific reason.
I don’t believe that love is a feeling, but an act of our will. This is why it is possible for people to remain married for fifty plus years. I can guarantee that warm fuzzy feelings are not what has kept them together through the years, but pure commitment and determination. You make a commitment that you are going to love through thick and thin, good and bad, better and worse, and then you commit to continue to do just that.
The Bible has, what is in my opinion, the best description of what love is and is not, and what love does and does not do. First Corinthians 13:4-8 describes love in the most simple, yet most profound way I have ever seen. It says that LOVE;
-Suffers long
– Is kind
– Does not envy
– Does not boast itself
– Is not puffed up
– Does not behave itself unseemly
– Does not seek its own
– Is not easily provoked
– Thinks no evil
– Does not rejoice in iniquity
– It rejoices in the truth
– It bears all things
– It believes all things
– It hopes in all things
– It endures all things
– And, It Never Fails
So when dealing with our spouses, children, friends, and even strangers, we need to look to our creator who gives us an example of unconditional love. Remember that He loved us while we were yet still sinners, and He gave His life for us. [Romans 5:8] As imperfect humans we are not capable of this kind of love on our own. We must look to God to be filled with His perfect love, so that we don’t come up empty when those around us are less than perfect. We must put on love, which is the bond of perfectness, [Colos. 3:14] and remember that love covers a multitude of sins. [1 Peter 4:8]