Love is -

Love is  - warm affection, attachment, liking or fondness.

 In its deepest expression, a self-sacrificial form of love as exemplified in the perfect life of Christ!


If we want to see " Love " fully worked out in a life we must go to the person of Jesus Christ. At the height of His ministry He came out with His greatest commandment:

" You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength  -  (then) You shall love your neighbor as yourself. "


I imagine Jesus was speaking out of his own experience.  Here was someone who was prepared to love God with all interbeing: heart, soul, mind, and strength.

This was balanced with an outer love to neighbor {which included everyone in your immediate vicinity} and was further balanced by a true and genuine love of Himself.


In John's Gospel  - He confirmed the source of His Love:

 " As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.

 If you keep commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His Love. "

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7  (NIV)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hope, always perseveres.



These 2 commandments were simplified into one: 

"I give you a new commandment that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. "  John 13:34


Love is eager, sincere and kind: it is glad and lovely; it is strong, patient and faithful, long-suffering and resolute; and it never seeks its own ends,

for when a person seeks their own ends, they at once fall out of love.


Jesus lived out this " new commandment " to the very end!