The True Meaning of Love: A Biblical Perspective
By Elizabeth Prata
I saw this on Twitter/X. I loved Amy Spreeman’s reply to it.
The history of this holiday is murky. It is supposedly honoring to a long-ago martyr called Saint Valentine of Rome who was a priest martyred in 269. The Anglican Communion, Lutheran Church, and the Catholic Church officially celebrate the holiday.
But Valentine’s day was not a huge deal until Chaucer referenced it in a poem about “Valentine’s Day” in the Medieval times of the 1300s. Exchanging cards expressing love on the day wasn’t popular until the middle of the 1800s, when manufacturing production increased due to the Industrial Revolution, postal rates became affordable, and stamps were invented. The ‘modern age’ of Valentines cards began. No one is quite sure of the drift toward the holiday being centered around romance and love. But here we are, drowning in the color red, Hallmark cards, romantic expectations, and some notion of love.
This is today’s point. Love. I’d said ‘some notion of love.’ The Bible shows us what God expects of love. God IS love. He has set forth in His word instructions for who to love, and how to love. He ordained marriage as a pairing with love for Him as the foundation, and love for each other on earth so long as you both shall live once united in matrimony. Love among and between the brethren is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
The photo of the cards I opened with is significant. It is obvious the world does not know what love is. The word ‘love’ is by now so watered down it’s equated with casual colleagues from work, even love from a pets’ point of view!
The Bible speaks much of the concept of love. Yes, it’s an emotion. But it is also a concept into which we dive, choosing it at all points in life and not simply feeling it temporally.
The unsaved do not know love. They do not know how to love. Yes, they love, but not according to God’s standards. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). The unsaved can show care and concern. But they do not love in holiness or righteousness.
Furthermore, the stumbling, unsaved kind of love is perplexing. I remember being an adult and wondering what love was. I had not grown up in a loving family. I was briefly married, but he became an adulterer and left the marriage for the other woman. At that point in my life I truly wondered what love was. Where it was. How to obtain it. Love was so absent, so warped, so confusing, I didn’t know if I even wanted it anymore.
The 1984 Foreigner song “I wanna know what love is” was popular on the radio. I listened to it every time it came on, mouthing the same words what the singer was asking-
I’ve gotta take a little time A little time to think things over. I better read between the lines In case I need it when I’m older. This mountain, I must climb Feels like a world upon my shoulders. Through the clouds, I see love shine. Keeps me warm as life grows colder. In my life, there’s been heartache and pain, I don’t know if I can face it again. Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far To change this lonely life. I wanna know what love is. I want you to show me.
But WHO? Who can show me? That was the question. I didn’t know…until God in His timing showed me. We can only know what love truly is when we understand Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. When we understand the Gospel. That is knowledge we can never gain on our own, but God has to show us.
I learned about love 20 years later when Jesus came into my life and awakened my soul. Twenty years is a long time on earth but not a long time in eternity. I am glad He came at all, choosing to save me from my ignorant life of pagan love and showing me what love is. It’s not a Valentine card. It’s the Gospel.
