What is Love?

Love, love. We all want it; we were made for it. The world sings about it--in many wrong ways. So what is "Love," exactly?

The Bible says that "God is Love." That is I John 4:8 (AMPC), which states: "He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love."

God is not just "love"; God is agape--unconditional love. God is Hesed--forever Covenant love.

Unconditional love is really the kind of love we all deeply desire--but if we don't know how to find God, then we'll look for it and even try to manufacture it, in whatever ways we can.

The Bible, the holy unchanging, eternal Word of God, is the answer and clearly tells us about our loving, faithful God Who is Love.

The Bible is God's Plan for man--although there are many accounts, many things the Bible records that happened throughout history, that were definitely
God's will; but that's another writing!

The Word explains Love in much more detail, in I Corinthians 13, especially verses 4-8, and verse 13, from The Passion Translation:

4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
13 And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So those things that seem hardest for us to master by ourselves (and truly, we never can get victory over them, without the help of God!) are some of those listed in these verses. However, with God, all things are possible! The more we yield to Him (and it is a process, but so worth it!), the more He can work in and through us, to heal and deliver and free and restore--us and those to whom He ministers through us!

Another thing, simply put, is a statement I heard from a famous female minister: When we do loving things for others, they are seeing God.

God is Love!

Ask the LORD to help you yield to Him and let Him flow through you to show His love to others! He will!

Through books, courses, presentations, service, prayer, worship, and more, Tonja and her husband live to exalt God. Her series for girls, P.O.W.E.R. GIRL ADVENTURES, is now out (books I-V), along with LEGACY; YOUR HOLY HEALTH: VISIONS OF THE KING, and more. See the "River Rain Creative" YT channel.