What is Love?

         I have spoken against the generations of old, but do not think that I hold my generation less accountable. It is evil enough to keep silent whilst the Devil twists the minds of the elect. He has been quite busy these past 2,000 years. More cunning and adapting to his ever vigilant and faithful opposition. And yet, it would be considered utter foolishness to deny the casualties the Christian Church has suffered. We have allowed our vocabulary to become compromised. Words, which once created such elaborate nightmares for the enemy, have now become his stronghold in this passionless world.

        When asked to define a word, the Christians of old would dare not lean upon there own understanding for fear of contradicting Holy Writ. Instead, they would search through the scriptures to get their answers. And this is where we find our first quandary. This generation, and the previous, has forgotten how to define words, thus distorting the very reality in which they live.

        Allow me to explain. If you base what you perceive as “real” upon what you know, and if what you know is proven to be false…then reality is distorted. How are we to perceive what we know unless we can define what we perceive? Hence, if those very definitions are false, then what we know is false.

The word that I am speaking of is “love.”

What does the world define love as?

Love cannot hate and is the opposite of hate.

Love is always kind and never offends

Love is never mean

Love seeks to please

Love is accepting of all

         This sounds right…does it not? The Christians looks at this and accept it because of its simplicity. “How could such a thing interfere in my life?” “It sounds so beautiful and melodious to the ear.” And to get reassurance, they will search the scriptures for that which agrees with their definition…and what do they find?

1 Corinthians 13

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

1 Timothy 6

“Follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”

Colossians 3

“Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you”

And there you have it! Love is always kind. Love is gentle. Love does not offend and is always accepting.

          My dear reader, can you not see the folly we have committed? If the Christian is to stand out within the world for the sake of Christ, and Christ is love, then why is it that we cannot be told apart? Is this truly the definition of love? By accepting such a thing, we not only compromise our duty, but the very Word of God. In the same Bible that these passages are found, we see love acted out by Christ.

John 2

And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

Matthew 12

Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

John 8

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Luke 11

“Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.”

“Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden.”

          Is this a contradiction? For in one passage it says to be kind and gentle, and yet in another passage it says that He, whom we are to imitate, was neither kind nor gentle. The only way that this becomes a contradiction is if we allow the world to govern our vocabulary. We are called to be kind…we are called to be gentle….but, as Jesus points out, sometimes the truth must be delivered in such a way that is unkind and very blunt/harsh. And so I ask you, are you strong enough in your faith to discern when to be aggressive?