What is the true meaning of love? The word “Love” has been misunderstood, abused, and misused. Love is not an emotion , a feeling , a sensation or a passion. Love is not the same as lust and it is not synonymous to infatuation, obsession or fascination. “Love” is more than just a four letter word, it is a Personality. Love is the first person of the Trinity. Love is God. Love is the greatest law in the Holy Bible. As a matter of fact, “Love” is the summary of the law of God. Love is the first and the last commandment of God. Once you obey the commandment of love, you have obeyed all the laws of God.
Love is the only reason why God sent His only begotten Son to this world to die for a sin He never committed. The humiliation, the maltreatment, the oppression, the degradation, the cruelty, the subjugation, the repression, the despotism and the suppression that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, suffered on earth was for only one reason, Love. I mean, love for mankind.
Love means to feel affection for, to adore or worship. It means to be devoted to. It also means to care for, to be keen on, or to find irresistible. Love is deeper than a sweet talk from a man to a woman. It is deeper than paying a lip service. Love is what is missing in a home where there is discord, jealousy, envy, rivalry, in-fighting, disunity, dissension, wrangling and squabbling.
When love is absent, brothers kill and betray one another and nations rise in war against each other. Hooliganism, racism, tribalism, favouritism, nepotism, chauvinism, and homicide are all derivatives and by-products of lack of love. In a nation of diverse cultures and various languages like our nation, Nigeria, for us to truly stand in unity, we only need to change our lingua-franca and adopt the language of love.
Love is the only gravitational force that can pull a nation together as one. Love is the only breeze that can blow in a family and make the home peaceful, and will not be accompanied with storm or whirl wind. In a world where terrorism is eating deep into the fabric of our system, Love, is the only potent weapon that can put an end to terrorism. It is only love that can end a war without a bloodshed. Love is the only missile that can be shot to the camp of the terrorist, which once embraced, it will put an end to all form of terrorism. Love is the only currency that we can spend in the world, and we will no longer have an economic recession.
Permit me to say that you cannot understand true love without knowing the Only True and Living God. Whosoever does not love is walking in death. Love must not be perverted. A home where the husband and wife does not know the True God can never understand what true love is all about, because God is Love. It was the love that God had for Adam in the beginning that made Him create a help suitable for Adam. God did not create Adam and Steve in the beginning, it was Adam and Eve.
It is a perversion of God’s love today in our world, that made some advanced countries think that God made a mistake by not creating Mr and Mr Adam or Mrs and Mrs Eve. It is unthinkable and unheard of, that world leaders who are supposed to know better, have quickly forgotten what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, that Ancient town in the bible who committed an abominable, dreadful and monstrous sexual sins. Just like Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, destruction awaits all who perverted God’s kind of love.
Love will make us coexist peacefully on earth. Love is the only ticket that can give you an access to live for eternity with God. Your love for God and your love for your fellow men will be the parameter or yardstick for assessing how obedient you are to God’s commandment. Love is constructive and productive. When sin destroyed our relationship with God through the first Adam, it was love that came to our rescue and reinstate us with God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Love is greater than faith. Love is greater than hope. I can boldly say that, in a world of many superlatives, Love is the greatest.
The “Lovemeter”
You may want to measure whether you are living in love or not, I am sure this “Lovemeter” will be useful for you.
I Corinthians 13:1-13 (English Standard Version)
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have aprophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, bso as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 cIf I give away all I have, and dif I deliver up my body to be burned,1 but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 eLove is patient and fkind; love gdoes not envy or boast; it his not arrogant 5 or rude. Itidoes not insist on its own way; it jis not irritable or resentful;2 6 it kdoes not rejoice at wrongdoing, but lrejoices with the truth. 7 mLove bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, eendures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For nwe know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 butowhen the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For pnow we see in a mirror dimly, but qthen face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as rI have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Matthew 22: 37-40 (New International Version)
37Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’e 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’f 40The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.
1 John 3: 14 ( New International Version)
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
Have you used this “Lovemeter”? How many of us can really measure up to God’s standard of assessing whether we are walking in love or not. Let us all reflect and make some adjustment where necessary. Always remember that, life has no meaning, if love is taken away, and heaven is uncertain, for anyone who is not full of love. And always remember, for you to know the true meaning of love, you must know God himself and accept His son Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, because God is love and He demonstrated His love towards us, by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
About Kayode Olusoji
Kayode Olusoji is a Music Minister by calling and a Teacher of the Word of God. God gave him the mandate to reach out to the world in songs and groom the true worshippers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. He has released three musical albums and written two books. He is the Pastor of Church Without Walls, an online initiative for reaching out to millions of people digitally via the internet, emails ,the social media and several other digital media. His online articles are been read by several people in over sixty countries. To book him for music ministrations, or as a guest speaker to teach or preach in your programs, send an email to booking@kayodeolusoji.net. Thank you
Kayode Olusoji
