What Is Love?

This post was prompted by my dear friend, Adam, who gave me the daunting task of writing about what love is. So. I guess I'll try my best.

Although very clearly discussed in 1 corinthians 13, and having a perfect image of what love would look like in human form via Jesus Christ, perhaps we are all permitted to have a little leeway in our own interpretation of the idea.

I guess I could start with my firm belief that not all love is the same love. There are several different types of love, and many variations on each type. For example, one type of love would be brotherly love, another similar type would be platonic love, then we can't forget romantic love, and of course God's unconditional love.
You could argue further that one can have selfish love, "things" love ("I love that book"), love of passion for a hobby or career, motherly love, sentimental love, and all kinds of other smaller types of love, but those, in my opinion, are less to be trifled with. Unless you are a mother. Motherly love can be pretty important.

I guess what I'm saying is that the love that deals with relationships with other people are more deserving of our attention.

I don't really know where to go from here.

You've heard the clichés, "A good friend hugs you when someone hurt you. But a best friend says 'whose face do I need to punch in?'" or how about this one?: "A good friend visits you in jail. But a best friend is in the cell with you saying, 'Man was that fun!'"
How realistic is this? That is to say, have any of you ever had a friend that actually did these things? Sure, they're funny to think about, but I doubt you have a friend this insane. Well, maybe you do. I don't know your friends. But I can't think of anyone in my life that even has that kind of personality. Even remotely. However, we all (hopefully) have those few friends that are so near and dear to our hearts that even though all they do is hug you, or visit you, or listen to you, they're really doing the most loving thing for you. They're showing you they care. They're not letting you down. They're letting the relationship go a step deeper. It would be easier to just numb the pain rather than to share it with someone who loves you, but the easy way out isn't always what's best and they know that. What about the friend who does the practical thing and gives you a car ride on a moment's notice or offers to buy you ice cream or writes you little notes of encouragement or helps you wash your dishes or fold your clothes when you're feeling crummy? They're loving you in a different way, maybe, but loving you all the same.

One of the hardest things to decipher between, in my experience, is the difference between romantic and platonic love. Okay, not so much on my part, but I really make it hard on the men I encounter. I have a thing with hand-holding, and I have led many a man astray by holding their hand. The act, I felt, was meant to be strictly platonic, but they interpreted it as romantic. Yeah, uh-oh. Smiling and laughing, spending long hours talking, can be interpreted different ways by different parties. Therein lies the importance of DTR: define the relationship. Are we friends? Are we going to date? How do we feel about each other? What is actually going on here? Yes, we love each other, but what does that love mean? What category does it fall under?
While this is something to be careful about, there is something incredibly beautiful about both romantic and platonic love. The love between a man and a woman, whether they are husband and wife, brother and sister, or simply best friends, is a beautiful and profound thing.

Uhhh, what else was I going to say? If you're still reading, I owe you much thanks. You're so faithful a reader, even though I'm totally flying by the seat of my pants here.

Ah, yes. Unconditional love. Maybe if you want to hear about that you should turn to the Bible and learn all about God's grace and mercy. We are dirty sinners, we have turned our backs on our Father, we have mocked him and ignored him, we have flat-out denied him, we have deliberately disobeyed him, we have spat in his face. Yet he loves us. So much so that he sent his one and only son to die for us. Because you know what? All that bad stuff we did? It's sin, and the punishment for sin is death. We deserve to die. We deserve to go to hell. Every one of us. But we got Jesus instead. Perfect, sinless Jesus died so we wouldn't have to. So we could go to Heaven. Why? Because he loves us. Despite all the crap that we've done, he loves us. He didn't do it for himself. He could have sat in paradise perfectly content while the rest of us suffered, but God himself came down to earth to suffer with us, and then he died for us. What does that tell you about our God? What does that tell you about love? I don't know how to go much deeper into it.

I can't tell you what love is. I can't. There are a zillion sayings out there that talk about what love is, and yet no one really knows, but I think God's got it all figured out, so we should just say what he says on the matter. God? What do you think?


God bless.

P.S. John 3:16, Romans 5:8