Love is a broad topic, since there are different types of love. To introduce this topic, let’s look at some definitions from the Royal Academy dictionary of the word “love”. Then we will see the meaning of Love through the old and the new testament.
The first two definitions that we find in the dictionary tell us about the love of a couple:
Feeling of affection, inclination and dedication to someone or something.
Care with which a work is worked delighting in it.
There is a kind of love that is in the way you treat things:
Softness, softness. Take care of the garden with love.
love in the old testament
the word in hebrew aheb, is most commonly used in the Old Testament, has a similar range of meanings. God chose Israel as his special people because he loved them:
And because he loved your fathers, he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his presence and with his great power,
Deuteronomy 4:37
Jehovah was pleased only with your fathers to love them, and chose their offspring after them, you, among all peoples, as on this day.
Deuteronomy 10:15
The word “love” appears 227 times in the Reina Valera 1960 and appears for the first time in Genesis 18:24 when Abraham was interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah:
Perhaps there are fifty righteous within the city: will you also destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are within it?
God speaking to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah:
Because in my eyes you were of great esteem, you were honorable, and I loved you; I will therefore give men for you, and nations for your life.
Isaiah 43:4
The people were commanded to love God in return:
4 Hear, Israel: Jehovah our God, Jehovah is one.
5 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
That love was to be shown by serving God and obeying His commandments:
12 And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, except that you fear the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, and love him, and serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul;
13 that you keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command you today, so that you may prosper?
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Only that you diligently take care to fulfill the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways; that you keep his commandments, and follow him, and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Joshua 22:5
The Israelites were also charged with sincere goodwill toward one another:
You shall not take revenge, nor bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I Jehovah.
Leviticus 19:18
Further reading: Genesis 24:67, 29:18-20, Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 Samuel 18:20, 2 Samuel 13:1, Psalm 31:23, Daniel 9:4
Love in the New Testament
Several different Greek words were translated “love” in the New Testament, and they have more specific meanings than the word “love” we use in our language.
1 – The verb agapao and the name agape. They refer to “Christian love” in the Bible. It means affection, benevolence, good will, high esteem and concern for the well-being of the loved one. It is a deliberate and determined love rather than an emotional or impulsive love. Almost every reference in the New Testament to love is agapao either agape in the original Greek language.
2 – The verb Phileo it means loving in an impulsive and emotional way. It is rarely used in the Bible.
When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, do you love me? (agapao) more than these? He answered him: Yes, Lord; You know that I love you (phileo). He said to him: Feed my lambs.
John 21:15
Philadelphia is a related word meaning the love between brothers or sisters (i.e., Romans 12:10). It is often translated as “brotherly love.”
All of the following references to love refer to agape love, except where we specify.
God’s love for humanity
Love is one of God’s attributes and an essential part of His nature:
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16
Our relationship towards God is like a love relationship between a son and his father. Like a father he loves, God deeply knows and cares for each of us:
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two quarters? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
7 For even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Luke 12:6-7
As children, some of us return love to God, and some of us don’t. Nevertheless, He loves us all. God’s gifts of love and salvation are offered to all, even those who have chosen to walk in evil ways:
so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the bad and good, and who makes it rain on the just and the unjust.
Matthew 5:45
Related reading: Matthew 6:25-30, 7:8-11, Luke 15:4-7, John 3:16-17, 16:27 (phileo), Romans 8:38-39
Love the Lord your God
Jesus told us that our most important responsibility in life is to love God:
28 Approaching one of the scribes, who had heard them dispute, and knew that he had answered them correctly, asked him: What is the first commandment of all?
29 Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is: Hear, Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the main commandment.
Mark 12:28-30
We show our love for God by obeying his commandments (Luke 11:28, John 14:21-24, 2 John 1:6), putting our trust in Him (John 14:1), maintaining a humble attitude (Matthew 18:1-4, Luke 18:9-14), and praying (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 18:1-8).
Related verses: Matthew 6:24, Matthew 7:2, 10:37 (phileo), Luke 6:46-49, Luke 11:27-28, Luke 18:15-17, John 6:28-29, John 6:66-69, John 12:44, John 14:15
love to neighbor
Our second greatest responsibility in life is to love others. Jesus said it:
And the second is similar: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:31
All the rest are our neighbors
Enemies are our neighbors too
Just as God loves all his people, so should we. Jesus calls us to extend our love even to our enemies!
43 You heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor, and you shall hate your enemy.
44 But I say to you: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you;
45 so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and who makes it rain on the just and the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not the publicans also do the same?
47 And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more? Don’t the Gentiles do so also?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
“Sinners” are our neighbors too
In Jesus’ day, “correct” people looked down on those they considered to be sinners and did not associate with them. But we are all sinners, each one in a different way (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8). Jesus taught by the word an example of not despising, avoiding, criticizing, judging, or condemning others (Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 9:10-13, Luke 18:9-14, John 8:3-11).
Love is the greatest of all spiritual gifts
The Apostle Paul said that Christian love is the greatest and most essential of all spiritual gifts. Even faith is worthless without love!
If I speak human and angelic tongues, and I do not have love, I come to be like resounding metal, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And if I had prophecy, and understood all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I had all faith, so as to move mountains, and I have no love, I am nothing.
3 And if I distributed all my goods to feed the poor, and if I gave up my body to be burned, and I have no love, it is of no use to me.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
The nature of Christian love
Paul goes on to describe the nature of true Christian love in this precious passage:
4 Love is long-suffering, it is benign; love does not envy, love is not boastful, it is not puffed up;
5 does not do anything improper, does not seek his own, does not get irritated, does not hold a grudge;
6 You don’t enjoy injustice, but you enjoy the truth.
7 Everything suffers, everything believes, everything awaits, everything endures.
8 Love never ceases to be; but prophecies will end, and tongues will cease, and science will end.
13 And now remain faith, hope, and love, these three; But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
The above passage is very often read at weddings, and is especially applicable to marriage. Romantic feelings and sexual attraction may fade over time, but true Christian love for one another is the “glue” that can hold marriages together for a lifetime.
Love is the essence of all commandments
In another of his letters, Paul said that loving our neighbor is the way to live all the commandments:
8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; because he who loves his neighbor, he has fulfilled the law.
9 Because: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and any other commandment, in this sentence is summarized: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
10 Love does no harm to the neighbor; so the fulfillment of the law is love.
Romans 13:8-10
God is the source of all our love. Loving God and loving others are so interrelated that we cannot have one without the other:
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 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, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And we have this commandment from him: He who loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:19-21
Related reading: Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 5:21-24, 5:38-39, 6:14-15, 18:21-35, 22:34-40, 25:31-46, Luke 6:27-31, 6:38, 10:25-37, John 13:34-35, 15:9-13, Romans 12:10 (philadelphia), Galatians 5:13-15, 5:22-23, James 2:8-9, 1 Peter 4:8-10, 1 John…