Why Love is Non-Negotiable

Part 1: What is Love?

Dear Zikora,

This is the part where I try to answer the million dollar question, What is Love, and Why Love?.

A song by Anita Baker titled “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” called love a “second hand emotion”. Others have called love fickle, impossible to attain, a fantasy, and even a battlefield. Love has even been used t brainwash and deceive people in both platonic, romantic, cooperate, and other kind of relationships and often chalked up to be just what silly people indulge in.

However, Love is none of that. Contrary to popular opinion, Love is not an emotion. Love is a Mindset. Love is an intentional, and powerful way of being. It is the very essence of what life and living is made of. It is the reason for and behind everything we are called to do and be as Christians. Therefore, Love is non- negotiable.

Those who know how to love and truly love are the ones who have genuinely figured life out. Because Love is the ultimate life hack!. Today’s reading gives us the Biblical and true meaning of Love. It also describes the importance of love, how powerful, healing, and redeeming love is. Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians  chapter 13.

Why Does Love Matter?

Firstly,

1. Love is the First Commandment:
   • In Matthew 22 vs 36-38, a lawyer asked Jesus: “Teacher, which is the Greatest commandment in the Law?”, and he [Jesus] said him; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment“. Need I say more? We cannot live the way God called us, if we do not obey his first commandment.

2) Love is the Most Important Virtue:

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”…1 Corinthians 13 vs 13.

According to this verse, it is more important to have Love than it is to have Faith. Now remember, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God…” Hebrews 11 vs 6a. So how then is having  Love more important than having faith? This would be because having love for God fuels our faith, helps us to be intentional about not to sinning against God, and it regulates the relationship we have with ourselves, and people.

3). Without Love, Everything is in Vain:

Love should be the motive behind our every action. 1 Corinthians 13 vs 1-3 puts it this way:

1. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”- vs 1. This here means that even if you are so spiritual and you are able to communicate to both men and angels and higher powers, if you don’t possess love, it is quite useless, and you are not making sense. So no, it’s not about being pious or looking holy, it is about having love.

B) “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but have no love, I am nothing” – vs 2. This here again informs us that being so in tune in our spirituality, being so knowledgeable and  powerful in the spirit realm, and making things happen because of your faith means nothing if you do not operate from a place of love.

C) “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing”- vs 3. Wow, so you could sacrifice everything you have and be generous  to the point of holding nothing back, however, if the motivation is not from the love you have, you have simply wasted your. How profound!

Who Are We Commanded to Love:

Before we get to all the things love is and is not, lets figure out who we should love. I had difficulty making this entry because I kept on inserting romantic relationships as the only place where we can exercise love. In fact, most of the argument against this chapter’s definition of love will be from people who think love applies only to romantic or close familial relationships. The arguments will center on the toxicity that can be found in relationship dynamics and how it is unfair, impossible, or dangerous to love that or love despite that.

While this is a valid argument, it is not a complete way to look at Love. A better way to consider Love is to pay attention to who we are called to love.

In Matthew 22 vs 36-40, a lawyer asked Jesus: “Teacher, which is the Greatest commandment in the Law?”, and he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the prophets”. Thus, we are to Love: God, Ourselves, and Other people and God’s creation. We don’t need to/have to be in a romantic or any relationship with anyone to exercise love. We are called to just love, God, Ourselves, and Others, period.

To explore the definition of Love, how to Love, and when it is not love, click here: How to Love God..