Love is a very difficult thing to define. In Scripture, it is less defined and more described. Paul goes to great lengths when he describes love in his letter the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13). It is interesting, when he comes to the end of his reflection on love he says basically that we will not truly understand or grasp what love is until we see it face to face in the presence of God. The things we say and even what we know will pass away he says, but love will have no end.
There is a similar line of thought in 1 John. There it says that love is perfected when we show love to one another (1 John 4:17). We bring to completion the work of God’s love when we treat one another with love.
To pull these images together, what we are being shown is that to love others to do something with the very power of God. We live in a culture that loves to power. We admire it and seek to align ourselves with it. We seek it out for ourselves and try to harness it accomplish our agendas and goals. But Scripture is giving us a very different idea of power here. God is revealing clearly that real power, power that is eternal and extends into everlasting life is love. What would it look like for the people of God to pursue goals and ends that are truly defined by love as God has revealed it?
