Lessons Learned on the Journey

What is love?

The lead sentence from a front-page article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (November 15, 2003) said the following. "Love, American style, often resembles a romantic swap meet, with lovers pursuing others' mates while jealously guarding their own..." What a sad view of love! The author of the article referred to a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2001, Vol. 80, No. 6, 894-917) entitled "Human Mate Poaching: Tactics and Temptations for Infiltrating Existing Mateships." Can this possibly be associated with love? The word "love" is so common in today's culture. Yet it has come to have no standards by which to measure it or motivate it.

During a break at a conference in the United Kingdom this October, a discussion about a recent wedding turned to the subject of love. What is love? How is it described? What does it produce? As our discussion continued several themes emerged:

		True love has divine origins and motivation - since God is love, He is the foundation and bedrock of all that is and can be known about love.

		Love apart from commitment is unsure - the passions of our soul are quickly consumed without covenanting to love in good times and bad.

		Love is never safe apart from its character - the consistent pattern of behavior resulting from an understanding and practice of the essence of true love allows us to rest in the security it provides.

Let us this week demonstrate our relationship to God by giving evidence of our commitment to love and the practice of its character, not letting today's frivolous characteristics of love intrude upon the depth and sacrifice of true love.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Loves does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (I Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV)