What is Love?




This past week the world tuned in to see another extravagant royal wedding. Another Prince of England's royal family married his bride amidst spectacular fanfare, pomp, and tradition while millions of people sat amazed in person as well as in front of their televisions and computers. The ceremony yet again captured the imagination and attention of people the world over and amid everything that was involved was a sermon by Bishop Michael Bruce Curry.

The Bishop's sermon focused on love and its great power to affect change in the world. In his sermon he called the world to seek the power of love and to envision a world where love was the driving force. In his words:

“There's power in love. There's power in love to help and heal when nothing else can.
There's power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.
There's power in love to show us the way to live.
Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death...

...love changes lives, and it can change this world.
"If you don't believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way."
Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way.
Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.
Imagine this tired old world where love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
When love is the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God's children.
"Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family...”

One might be inclined to wonder, in light of such grandiose words, what is love exactly? Do we take our lead from popular ideas of love as a sort of emotional force that takes hold of us without our input and leaves with as little care? Do we listen to the love songs that tell us that love is an illusive dream to be sought after but maybe never found? Do we listen to the cynics who say that love is merely a biochemical reaction in our minds and nothing more? What is love?



I think love is more than any of these things, more than what our “arm-chair philosophers” might have us believe. I think love is a choice, to think and to act for others over and above ourselves. Love is at its core, you before me. The Bible has what I think is probably the best description of love:

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Now whether you believe in the Bible or not, these are some pretty powerful words. Love has power because it is so radically different from what we may be naturally inclined to do. Love would have us seek not our own good but that of others. It would have us seek their benefit rather than our own, their gain at the sacrifice of ours.

So what is love? It's correcting your children -again- rather than screaming at them. It's helping your elderly neighbor around the house when you'd rather spend your Saturday relaxing. It's donating to charity rather than buying that new gizmo. It's doing the dishes when your spouse is tired. It's staying up with your friend who just got dumped so they're not alone.

So in general, I agree with Bishop Curry. Love is powerful thing that can alter our history not to mention our individual lives. Love can do more than anger, more than bitterness, more than war, more than education, more than anything. In fact, we've already seen love change the world.

Love came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. For those who may not know Christian belief, Jesus is God who took on to himself the body and nature of a human. He lived with us, struggled with us, spoke with us, and ultimately died for us. Our nature and our actions condemned us to judgment but because of God's great LOVE for us, He chose to suffer on our behalf. His death and resurrection paid the price for our crimes and provides all who will turn to Him passage into eternity.

Again, whether you believe He really was God or not, this event has changed the world and that change merits your attention. After all, if “greater love has no man than this, that one lay down his life for his friends,” then what does that say about someone who died for their enemies? Doesn't that sacrifice give at least some credence to what He taught and said? Doesn't it deserve at least a little examination on your part?

Love has, can, and will change the world in spectacular ways. Will you let it change you?

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