Love in scripture includes romantic love, but is much broader than that.
According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’. . . ‘And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself”’” (Matthew 22:37, 39).
Love of God is predicated on God’s love for us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He showed his love by creating us, providing for us, and seeking relationship with us through Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Our love for other people--lovers, families, and friends--also is predicated on God’s love for us. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). In fact, love is God’s very essence. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
We are to love our neighbors, and our neighbors are not just those who live near us. When a lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a foreigner who showed mercy to a man who had been beaten, robbed and left for dead by the roadside. He concluded by asking “[Who] was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” When the lawyer answered, “The one who had mercy on him,” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:30-37). In other words, the point is not to limit love by figuring out who to love, but to demonstrate love by helping those who need it.
God’s love is to reach beyond those we know and care about to embrace all people, even those we don’t like. And again it’s predicated on God’s love: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:43-45). |
