What is Love?

It is: First and foremost, the choice to accept a relationship with God, then a commitment to that relationship, and then a willful follow-through on that choice and commitment by doing whatever is required by that commitment to grow that relationship.

This involves our thoughts, actions, emotions, and desires; it involves our entire being, or it is not love. And this choice of a relationship with God involves choosing the same with our fellow human beings.

But isn’t love just an emotion? That may be our understanding of love, at least a common one. But I don’t find God understanding it in this way.

Let’s look at the two greatest commands ever given and see if we can better understand love. These are listed in both Matt 22:26-40 and Luke 10:25-28.

To sum up, the greatest commands are to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. We are also told that all other teachings and commands are based on these two (Matthew 22:40) and that this is what must be done to inherit eternal life (Luke 10:28).

Love, as God refers to it, cannot merely be your emotions, since you use them (the heart) to love. Indeed, it can't be solely about any one of the aspects mentioned. Because it takes all of them, your entire self, to love.  

This choice, commitment, and follow-through is what we mean by love when we discuss the Christian faith. It is an integral part of the lens through which we view Christian faith.