What is Love?

So what's love? I asked some of my friends what key factors were needed for love to mean something to them and these were their responses:


"For it to mean something… there needs to be a deep trust for each other; an emotional connection that hurts but helps”

“The connection, the relationship and trust”

“A person that you feel is right for you and believes the things you do”

“Knowing when to put God before the boy/girlfriend” (By the way, the answer to this is: “God always comes first”)

“Trust Faithfulness and Friendship also a good foundational relationship in God”

“Friend love is like family love, where the more time you spend with them the more you love them”

“Commitment, Trust, Loyalty, & Honesty”

and

“Love is something unconditional. Like if your boyfriend, friend, husband, whatever it may be, say was in an accident and something happened to their face…would you still love them?”


Should you ask the question “What is love?” or “What does it take for something to be love?”I guarantee every person that lives and breathes would have an answer for you.

Though they will each be different, there’s some common ground in it all.


I got to thinking about a quote I seen once that said “Love is a choice we make daily.”

Now how true is that? Looking back to all of the things my friends said… yes, they were right. Love is actually a lot of things, and involves trust, believing the same things, being unconditional and so much more.

Above all this though, love is a choice. We choose to love people as much as we choose to forgive or hold a grudge against someone; we choose to love as much as we choose what our next meal will be from a menu.

How’s this (and not that I mean it to sound so simple)? Well... 

• Wives love their husbands when instead of getting mad at him for forgetting something, they choose instead to love and forgive them.
• A husband or boyfriend, who has to deal with that one girl (or few girls) at work/school, makes the choice to not put their relationship in jeopardy when they choose love and say no; when they choose to fight.
• When a friend is in a situation where gossip is going on, they have a decision to make; will they choose to love and stand up for who’s being accused? Or join in and shut them down, even if that friend may not find out?

Forgiveness isn’t something that happens overnight, it takes awhile to make the choice whenever that grudge decides to sneak back up to SQUASH it back down saying “No! I’ve forgiven them!”

It’s really no surprise love doesn’t happen overnight either.

Love takes time to grow and mature; to be all those things mentioned before; to build that trust.

Jesus chose on that night to love His Father enough to do His will (Luke 22:42);

He chose to love us through the beatings and the act of nailing of Him on the cross (Luke 22:63, 23:33, 34)… today, when we ask Jesus to forgive our sins and enter our hearts, we make the choice to love Him.

Jesus has loved us since before we knew Him and choose to die for us while we were still dirty in God's sight. While we were still vile sinners, Jesus was moved by the compassion of His Abba to shed His blood, that we might be righteous in God's sight.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

-Romans 5:8 (NASB)