Love DefinedSample

We have looked mostly through the apostle Paul’s eyes at what love is. It is the action of God towards us in Jesus. If we want to know what love looks like, look no further than the Son of God – he is the express image of the Father. Jesus is the love of the Father in tangible and accessible terms. 

What of our other writer, John? If Paul defines love for us as God’s action towards us by sending his Son, his sacrificial death on the cross, and that this love informs the way we are to love, then John’s definition of love is centred around doing what Jesus commanded. John speaks of the love we are to have towards each other. Paul and John aren’t saying different things – both define love, one in God’s action to us, and the other in our action to others. It is the same wellspring.

John defines love in terms of us walking in the commandments of Christ, specifically that of loving one another.

Love is defined as walking in the commandments, and most specifically, in the new commandment – to love one another in the same manner Jesus showed his love to the disciples. 

In fact, love sums up all the Old Testament commandments. - love for God and love for others. A cursory reading of the Ten Commandments shows that love is embedded in them. Love is seen in the care and protection of others by honouring our parents, by not murdering (is there a greater hate than premeditated murder), by not committing adultery with another’s spouse, and by not stealing, lying, or coveting. All these are ways to show love to your neighbour.

Love has an ethical focus in the Ten Commandments. This love is a predetermined moral position of someone intent on loving God, by loving their neighbour. Little suggests that this love is emotive or instinctive. 

John sees love as a response to the commandments of Jesus in the way we live towards each other. 

This is love defined.