Looking for Love...In all the Wrong Places

This weekend brings another Valentine's Day. A day which tends to bring about many emotions from all sorts of people. In a tribute to Valentine's Day, several people at MBU have started to blog/video-blog about this one question: What is LOVE?

What is love? I find it interesting that so many people have differing opinions about what love is. I wonder if that is because we overuse the word love or if it is because love really does have many facets. Is there a difference between loving coffee, loving a friend, loving your job, loving a "significant other" and loving God? How does one word convey all of that?

LOVE (According to the Random House Dictionary) 

 /lʌv/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [luhv] Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, loved, lov⋅ing.
–noun
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
3. sexual passion or desire.
4. a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
5. (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
6. a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.
7. sexual intercourse; copulation.
8. (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
9. affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one's neighbor.
10. strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
11. the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love.
12. the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
13. Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing.
14. a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.
–verb (used with object)
15. to have love or affection for: All her pupils love her.
16. to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).
17. to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music.
18. to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight.
19. to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.
20. to have sexual intercourse with.
–verb (used without object)
21. to have love or affection for another person; be in love.—Verb phrase
22. love up, to hug and cuddle: She loves him up every chance she gets.
—Idioms
23. for love,
a. out of affection or liking; for pleasure.
b. without compensation; gratuitously: He took care of the poor for love.
24. for the love of, in consideration of; for the sake of: For the love of mercy, stop that noise.
25. in love, infused with or feeling deep affection or passion: a youth always in love.
26. in love with, feeling deep affection or passion for (a person, idea, occupation, etc.); enamored of: in love with the girl next door; in love with one's work.
27. make love,
a. to embrace and kiss as lovers.
b. to engage in sexual activity.
28. no love lost, dislike; animosity: There was no love lost between the two brothers.

I wonder how many of these definitions made it into the "What is Love?" videos? I'm not a big fan of video cameras, so I declined answering the question, but here, behind the safety of cyberspace, is my answer.

1. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’"
2. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
3. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
4. Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
5. And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
6. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
7. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
8. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
9. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
10. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
11. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
12. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
13. Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
14. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
15. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
16. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments
17. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
18. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
19. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
20. for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God
21. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
22. and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us
23. but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
24. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[1] for those who are called according to his purpose.
25. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good
26. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor
27. Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
28. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
29. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
30. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
31. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
32. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
33. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
34. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
35. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
36. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
37. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
38. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
39. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
40. and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
41. with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
42. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
43. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
44. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
45. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
46. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
47. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
48. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
49. complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
50. that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ,
51. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
52. Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,
53. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
54. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ
55. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
56. for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
57. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
58. and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
59. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
60. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
61. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
62. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
63. Let brotherly love continue.
64. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
65. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
66. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
67. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
68. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
69. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
70. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him[1] there is no cause for stumbling.
71. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
72. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
73. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
74. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
75. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
76. Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
77. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
78. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
79. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
80. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
81. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
82. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
83. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
84. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
85. We love because he first loved us.
86. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[1] love God whom he has not seen.
87. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
88. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
89. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
90. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
91. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

(All Scripture referenced from the ESV)

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you,
Marie