What Is Love?

   What is love? Is it an emotion? Emotions have been on my mind a lot lately. I'm not an emotional person, that would be the one thing I dislike about being feminine. We ride emotional roller coasters, we go through emotional highs and lows, emotional extremes. We look at a guy and go all the way emotionally ("First Christmas!" Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.) We have emotional breakdowns. We can fall to pieces simply watching a movie. But is love that warm fuzzy feeling that makes your heart flutter? No, it is the result. It is hormones and endorphins reacting to something lovely. If something as pointless as a movie can make you go from hysterically happy to swimming in tears, then we shouldn't rely on that warm fuzzy feeling.

   I just started reading a book today called Philippians ~ Christ, the Source of Joy and Strength, by John MacArthur. It's from a Bible study I'm planning on attending this week, and I thought I would get caught up on my homework. Going through it, I found some verses and definitions that define true love so perfectly, I had to share them with you! So this is just a prelude to the verses and definitions. I will leave them with you to meditate on, versus my further expounding. I hope God shows you something new, and draws you nearer to Himself.

Philippians 1:9-11 ~ And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in {knowledge} and all {discernment}, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be {sincere and without offense} till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

in knowledge (v.9) -- This is from the Greek word that describes genuine, full, or advanced knowledge. Biblical love is not an empty sentimentalism but is anchored and regulated by the truth of Scripture. (see Ephesians 5:2-3, 1 Peter 1:22)

discernment (v.9) --  Moral perception, insight, and the practical application of knowledge. Love is not blind but perceptive, and it carefully scrutinizes to distinguish between right and wrong.

sincere and without offense (v.10) -- "Sincere" means "genuine," and may have originally meant "tested by sunlight." In the ancient world, dishonest pottery dealers filled cracks in their inferior products with wax before glazing and painting them, making worthless pots difficult to distinguish from expensive ones. The only way to avoid being defrauded was to hold the pot to the sun, making the wax-filled cracks obvious. Dealers marked their fine pottery that could withstand "sun testing" as sine cera, "without wax." "Without offense" can be translated "blameless," referring to the relational integrity. Christians are to live lives of true integrity that do not cause others to sin.

From the book Philippians ~ Christ, the Source of Joy and Strength
by John MacArthur
published by Thomas Nelson
copyright 2007