Love: From a worldly and Godly perspective

What is Love?

When I was still in elementary, signing autographs was very rampant. And the very question that made everyone think about the answer and made the owner excited to read on was the question, “What is love?” Common answers were “Love is like a rosary, full of mystery”, “Love is like a bubblegum kung mupilit makabuang.” Yes, I agree, these definitions are true – true to the worldly outlook.

Worldly Perspective

                The world defines love for self-fulfillment. We want our partner to make us feel special, to be always there for us, and to make us happy. We think its love when that person makes us happy, makes us feel so special, always there for us.

                The world based love on feelings. It is often seen as an emotion. Well, emotions and romance are a wonderful part of being in love, but they should never be our only reasons for entering into a relationship. How you feel about another person is completely dependent on the situation and on how he/she acts; it can change without warning. You can feel “in love” one moment and suddenly “out of love” the next. Good feelings are nice, but they are not stable, and they should not be the only foundations of a commitment. A relationship based on feelings will last only as long as the feelings last.

                The world defines love when it is beyond our control. The  term “falling in love” suggests that love is something that happens to us without our control. We excuse ourselves from having to behave responsibly by saying “I can’t help it, I’m in love!”

These definitions of love often lead to confusion and disillusionment. The hopes and dreams that we have at the beginning of a relationship soon turn into frustration when our needs are not met and when feelings change. Rejection and pain become common experiences. When our hearts get broken, we sometimes ask ourselves if there could possibly be something more to love, something that we’ve missed. The answers can be found in the greatest love story authored by the greatest Lover of all time. Jesus Christ gave us the best example of true love in all of history.

Godly Perspective

Now, let us go into God’s definition of love.

Love is self-less.  In the ultimate act of selflessness, Jesus Christ gave His life for those He loved. It was an extravagant act of sacrifice offered without considering whether we deserved such a gift or not. Our need to be forgiven and to be restored was foremost in His mind.

 Love is not based only on feelings. As we can see in His struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus did not “feel” like dying on the cross. The sacrifice was definitely not easy for Him to make. As a human being, He knew how painful and humiliating that death would be, and He wished that there was some other way. But because His love was based on more than what He felt, He willingly went through with the sacrifice. This decision was not based on whether we deserved it or not, or whether we would love Him back or not.

Love is a conscious, deliberate commitment. There is absolutely nothing about human beings that would cause Jesus to “fall in love’ with us. He is holy; we are sinful. He is pure; we are not. He is completely obedient to the Father; we have disobeyed again and again. Yet He still chose to love us despite all these. It was a conscious decision based on who He is and not on who we are. Because His love is a solid commitment, we need not fear that He will someday “fall out of love” with us. His love is constant and stable, not unpredictable.

If we accept Jesus’ offer forgiveness, we can be free to experience God’s wonderful plan for love. He designed us to long to  love and be loved, and He is concerned about our hearts. Just so you know, God wants to give us our Ms./Ms. Right yet he wants us to wait until the right time.

Love -   this has been an abused word nowadays. God, the author and the word itself designed it wonderfully but the world gave an 180^o way different meaning of it.  The love story that God wants to write for us is more beautiful than we can imagine. He wants us to experience true love and genuine romance, not the cheap imitation offered by the world.

When I became a Christian, I was able to understand this word deeply better. Love is the force that made God gave his only Son for the redemption of our sins. Love is what Jesus had for God that He obeyed Him no matter what, no matter how hard it was. From these realizations, for me, Love is the thing that makes you do impossible things. 

How about you? How do you define LOVE?