What Is Real Love?
There are many inaccurate ideas about the concept of love. A song many years ago stated, “If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right.” The singer was speaking about a married man with whom she was in an adulterous relationship. She knew that it was wrong, but she “loved” him and, therefore, was willing to be wrong.
Many a teenage girl has fallen prey to the love line and has become sexually involved with some boy because he claims that he loves her. All along, though, he used that word to get her to do what he wanted.
Furthermore, love is not a feeling that you feel when you feel a feeling that you have never felt before. That could be indigestion, a toothache, or a rush of adrenaline. All of these you felt for the first time, but they were not love.
These are three of the main inaccuracies concerning the word love. Real love wants to do what is right by God and by the other person. Jesus identified the greatest command as loving God with your all. The second command was like the first—love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). The singer in adultery was not right before God or the other person. This could not have been real love.
Real love is more than uttered words; the actions tell the real story. The Bible identifies what real love is in I Corinthians 13. The one unmistakable idea within this chapter is the fact that love is action. The boy who uses the word to get the girl to perform his desires is not acting in a loving manner toward her. This cannot be real love.
Real love is a decision, not primarily a feeling. Again, we return to Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:34-40. Notice the question posed to Jesus, “What is the greatest command?” The question was not, “What is the greatest feeling?” Real love is revealed every time one chooses to act properly toward God and others.
It was love that drove Jesus to come to earth. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). As Jesus left the earth, He uttered some of the greatest love words ever uttered.
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
“Woman, behold your son! Behold your mother!”
“I thirst!”
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
“It is finished!”
“Father, into your hands I commit My spirit.”
-Mike Johnson
