Love

As artists like Haddaway, Jennifer Lopez, Nevershoutnever, and many others would sing, "what is love?" Is it a feeling and emotion? Is it an action? To you, what is love? You see, society tells us all too often that love is physical. That love comes and goes. That love is earned and can be used to manipulate. That love is sleeping with your boyfriend or the longing to buy that cute pair of heels you saw in the window of Macy's. Love comes in many different forms. I could LOVE pizza and tacos, but do I LOVE them the same way I love my family or friends?
Love is such a complex subject. Love is a person. Love is an action. Love is a word- a noun and verb. God is love, and when you have love for something, you are drawn to it. You can show someone love or tell them you love them. What is love? How do we show love?
We find in 1 Corinthians 13 a very detailed list of qualities of love. It is patient, and kind. It doesn't envy or boast. It is not proud, rude, self-seeking or easily angered. It keeps no list of wrongdoings against another person. "Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth." It protects and trusts, hopes and it always perseveres. And love certainly without a doubt will not EVER fail you.
But what does that all mean? Love is humble. Love, even when it is wronged, finds a way to forgive. Love never gives up. Think with me for a moment. What if we took the word "love is" out of all of that, and replaced it with "I am?" What if we took on the characteristics of love? So many times we fail people and people fail us, but it's those that we truly love that we come back to, even when we feel hurt by them. Why is that? Because love perseveres. Love forgives. Love is even-tempered.
Now, someone can say they love you, but what do they mean? If you happen to be a teenage girl reading this right now, when a boy tells you he loves you, if he says "you'll love me to if you (insert action here: change the way you dress, lose weight, have sex with him)" he's lying. Why? Because love is PATIENT. True love waits. Love is not self-seeking. If a guy (or girl) wants YOU to change to make them happy, they're not worth it. Love is accepting and kind. As we found out earlier "I love pizza" does not share the same value as "I love you." In the case with the first example, love is just a word, and society has made it meaningless.
So, how can we avoid telling people we love them without it becoming "just a word?" Simple. Sort of. 1 John 3:18- "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." We SHOW it to them. It is not enough to just say something. That's where the devil likes to come into relationships and dig at your being. Maybe you find it hard to show your love to someone. Been there, done that. People get annoying, or you'd be embarrassed by expressing love. Or your boyfriend says "if you love me then...." That action hardly qualifies as love.
You see, love is such a complicated topic that we can only be sure of one answer to the question "what is love?" God is Love.