Radical Love Defined

According to the Oxford dictionary, love is "an intense feeling of deep affection." Maybe this is why society tells us that we can "fall out of love" with someone because culturally, love has been reduced to nothing more than a feeling. Maybe this is why society says "love is love", because culturally, love has lost its true source and divine definition.

Often times, God is described as being a "loving God". Not wrong! God is a loving God. But more precisely and accurately, God IS love (written as a noun, not a verb). In fact, you cannot separate love from God or God from love because love is not just something that He does or expresses, it's who He is at a core level. His nature is love itself. Even when God instructs, judges, and punishes, all is done out of His nature of love.

So what can we know about the God of love from the Source Himself?

Well, for starters, in order for God to eternallybe love, there must be an eternal way for God to love within Himself. Biblically, this eternal dwelling of love is explained by the presence of God, God's Word (who would take on the form of a human named Jesus), and God's Spirit (Genesis 1:1-2, Proverbs 8:22-31, Isaiah 48:16, John  1:1-3, 14 & 17:5, Colossians 1:15-17). Creation was quite literally an over flow of God's love from within Himself.

Not only is God's love eternal, but it's also covenantal, as seen throughout the history of the Israelite Jews whom God guided through trials and even punishments of sins, as a fulfillment of His covenantal promises with their ancestors. We see this described in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, "The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples...But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers..." Where the world's definition of love is often rooted in ever-changing emotions, God's love is anchored in sacred covenantal oaths.



What else can we say about the covenantal love of God? Well, "the love of God was made manifest among" humanity when He "sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" when he became the "propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).  Where the world's definition of love is often rooted in lust and passion, God's love is anchored in what is pure and redemptive--what leads to repentance and transformation.

The definition of and source of love that the world offers is cheap, fickle,  destructive and counterfeit at best. The love found in the world often leads to the opposite of true happiness, fulfillment, health, and joy. Only the love of God holds the power and ability to lead us to a joy that is full (John 15:11).

In the next devotional, we will look at how we can abide in the love of God, rather than the cheapened, counterfeit love offered by this world.