Chaplain’s Corner

What is love?

When Jesus was approached by experts in the law, they asked Jesus, ‘Which is the greatest commandment?’ His response can be summarised as: Love God and love others. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and all your strength. Secondly, love your neighbour as yourself.

The big question we must consider then is… what is love? 

The word love in the English language can be used to describe how we love our Mum; or how a wife might feel about her husband; and yet also how we regard our feelings towards ice cream! If I am to love God and should do so with everything I am. Is that the ice cream kind of love? Or the love I have for my mum kind of love? Or is it something else?

What the English language translates as the one word love, the Hebrew and Greek languages translate as several different words, with quite different meanings and inferences.

Raya, for example, is the word used for the kind of love that is shared by a friend, a companion, or soul mate. In other words, the love you have for a best friend. 

The word Ahava, is the strong connection and commitment kind of love. That of a father for his son, as described when Jacob loved his son Joseph. It is also the romantic kind of love, such as Isaac loving his wife, Rebekah. It is the ‘I’m in this for the long haul’ kind of commitment love.

Dod, is the passionate, romantic, part of a love relationship, which includes the physical touch aspect of showing someone your love. 

To have a successful relationship or marriage, you need a healthy dose, a healthy balance, of all three of these types of love. If my marriage is only about the physical, the balance isn’t right.  The same is true of Raya, the friendship kind of love. There’s something lacking, out of balance, if I’m only a friend to my wife but there is no commitment or romance; then that’s not a marriage or real love either, is it? That’s just two friends who live together, held together by a contract.

But do any of these Hebrew descriptions of love, describe the love God has for us?  Do any of these descriptions hold the key to loving our neighbour as ourselves, or how we should love God back? I think we need to look to the New Testament and an ancient Greek word for love to find the key that unlocks the true meaning of the love Jesus is requires of us. The word is Agape.

Agape is a self-sacrificing, unconditional, all-in kind of love. It is the kind of love He has shown you first. God held nothing back. So much did He wish to demonstrate His love for you, He willingly gave up the life of His own, His one and only Son. He was all-in, as was Jesus!

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Ponder on that for a moment. God’s unconditional covenant, His promise, His love for you, was never dependent on you being right or perfect or ready. Jesus demonstrated His love for you by giving up His very life. Now that’s love!

Culture says you must first love yourself. A better strategy is to first allow God to love you. Let Him into your heart and into your world. Allow Him to love you from the inside out, allow Him into the darkest depths of your heart, the twisted place, the selfish place, the lustful place, the angry place. And allow Him to do a heart transplant that replaces each of those things with pure, unadulterated, unconditional, Agape love. Amen?

I’ll close with this scripture, otherwise known by many as the love scripture. Allow this to rest on your heart today and commit to living it out.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love… I am nothing! If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails… 

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a

God bless,

Pastor Matt Daly

College Chaplain