The Redefinition
Love is easier described than defined. An amazing description was penned by Paul of Tarsus in his mid-first century correspondence with residents of Corinth, the city of a thousand prostitutes. He wrote, ‘Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love is not boastful, does not parade itself; does not behave itself unseemly, does not behave indecently, does not seek her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness or wrong, but rejoices with truth. Love bears all things. Love believes all things. Love never fails.’ A defining description. To paraphrase the graphic opening statements of his discourse, saying ‘I love you’ in the tongues of men and angels is possible without love. Giving away all I have, and even sacrificing my body to be burned for someone is possible without love.
Love, in the New Testament ethos is best defined not first as a situation, an emotion, a place, an activity or an abstraction. Love is best defined first as a Person. God is love. Love is God in me acting up; acting out. It is allowing God in me to express, respond and relate to everything and everyone around me without condition. Love as the eros concept wants sex. It takes you to bed. Love as the phileo concept wants security and sustenance of friendly sentimental personal attachments and relationships. It takes you bowling with the fellows, shopping with the ladies and on a nice Bahamas holiday with family. In case you’re wondering, there is something more. Agape. The God kind of love touches on the unconditional. It does not primarily want for itself. It is a radical paradigm shift concept that responds not to what people have done or who people are. It is a deliberate love that has dimensions. Height, length, breadth, depth.
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