What is love? | GotQuestions.org

Welcome back. Let's learn together. Many others like you have asked, what is love? Let's find out, shall we? You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. Love can be a challenge to define. Love can involve personal affection, sexual attraction, platonic admiration, brotherly loyalty, benevolent concern, or worshipful adoration.

Love Originates in God and Is Distinguished by the Bible’s Language

To accurately answer the question, what is love? We need to go to the origin of love. The Bible tells us that love originates in God. In the English language, the word love is forced to bear the emotions of everything from pancakes to parents.

The ancient languages, which the Bible was written in, differentiate among the kinds or types of love. The Hebrew word yada and the Greek word eros are the words used to indicate sexual love. The word yada meaning to know, and in this context to know carnally or to have sexual intercourse with.

Brotherly love exists between close friends regardless of gender. There is no sexual connotation. The Hebrew word is ahaba and it is used to describe the love between David and Jonathan. The Greek word for brotherly love or affection is phileo and it's used to refer to friendship.

A family or tribal love, the Hebrew word is once again ahaba indicating a deep affection and the Greek is storge. The Greek word is only found in the New Testament as a negative word astargas meaning without natural love.

Finally, there is the Hebrew word chesed and the Greek word agape, which are used to express the kind of love God demonstrates toward his elect. The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression.

God’s Steadfast Love and Agape Are Seen in His Saving Work

God's chesed love is why he never gives up on his adopted children. Agape love is the goodwill and benevolence of God shown in self-sacrifice and an unconditional commitment to a loved one. Agape love is the kind of love we are to have for God in fulfillment of the greatest commandment.

Love Is Defined by God’s Self-Giving in Christ

In conclusion, in the most basic sense, love is the emotion felt and actions performed by someone concerned for the well-being of another person. Love involves affection, compassion, care, and self-sacrifice.

Love originates in the relationships among the triune Godhead. Loving is unique to the human experience of being an image bearer of God. A pet owner may love her dog. She is concerned for its well-being and cares for it.

On the other hand, her dog doesn't truly love her. It wags its tail, sits by her, and comes when she calls, but all of those responses are based on the fact that she feeds it and keeps it warm. Animals cannot love in the same way that humans, created in God's image, can love.

Here is the bottom line on love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Loving One Another Because God First Loved Us

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We love because he first loved us. All right, that answers your question. What is love? On our website, gotquestions .org, you'll find an in-depth article with citations and resource suggestions.

If this helped you as much as it did others, like this video and subscribe to the GotQuestions channel. Meanwhile, if you'd like to study more, as always, just keep asking. We'll see you next time.