Love I an interesting word. I English it can have sundry meanings, and diverse application. One can mean that they like something, want something, enjoy something, have an affinity for someone, or they can mean that they want someone else’s best, despite their own wishes. I was always taught that love is a commitment, not an emotion. And, while that is partly true, love definitely can, and often times will have an emotional element.

I was talking to my pastor a few days ago, and I confessed to him that I have been put off for a great while when it comes to love – especially in a Christian context. Yes, I know the verses that explain that God is love, that he loved he gave, and how dying on the cross was the greatest showcase of love that ever existed. But, I also know how many Christians use and overuse love. It is rather sickening to me.

It wasn’t until reading a small book written by Amy Carmichael  that I realized my distaste for the topic of love. I would much rather talk about any other attribute of God than his love. This isn’t because I am a man and not about mushy stuff. I actually think I am more okay with the “romantic” – if you will – sort of love than the biblical love expressed by God.

I believe the reason for this is twofold. The first is that I think mainstream Christianity has become pseudo feminized by using a very soft and shallow understanding of love. The second is that my own understanding of love and how it relates to God has been distorted.

The truth is, love is a central part of the Bible, and like many other things that are important in the Bible, Satan has distorted and diluted its meaning. Yes, for God so loved, he gave his only son. Yes, God is love. Yes, we ought to love one another. But without a proper understanding of love, we don’t get the fulness of the caracture of God and our own obligations.

1 John 4KJV

¹⁰ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

At the risk of sounding cliché, calvary is the greatest expression of love. Christ, free gave of himself for our good. It is not soft or shallow. He suffered bled and died because of love, along with all of his other attributes in conjunction. This is the save love that we, as Christains, are called to follow after.

S. T. 
Acts 20:24
"But, none of these things move me.