Overall Question: As far as the Bible is concerned, what is love?

Memory Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1 NKJV “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Sunday – Love Is Multidimensional
Deuteronomy 6:5 CEV “So love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.”
Deuteronomy 6:5 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The Hebrew word here translated “love” is a general term that also suggests the ideas “desire,” “affection,” “inclination,” the more intimate cleaving of soul to soul. The believer’s relation to God is based on love, and love is the fundamental principle of His law. To love perfectly is to obey wholeheartedly.
Matthew 7:12 CEV “Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about.”
Matthew 22:39 CEV “The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, "Love others as much as you love yourself."”

Monday – What Love Does
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Holman “4 ¶ Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; 5 does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; 6 finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 ¶ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.”

Tuesday – What Love Doesn’t Do
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NKJV “4 ¶ Love suffers long [and] is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 ¶ Love never fails. But whether [there are] prophecies, they will fail; whether [there are] tongues, they will cease; whether [there is] knowledge, it will vanish away.”
1 Corinthians 13:4 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Forbearance, or long-suffering, in a world where impatience and intolerance prevail, is a precious attribute. Love bears long with the faults, failings, and weaknesses of others. It recognizes that all human beings are fallible, and that, therefore, due allowance must be made for manifestations of the outworking of errors that result from man’s inherently sinful nature. Long-suffering is opposed to haste, to passionate expressions and thoughts, and to irritability.
1 Corinthians 13:4 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES The word here used denotes to be good-natured, gentle, tender, affectionate. Love is benignant. It wishes well. It is not harsh, sour, morose, in-natured. Tindal renders it, "is courteous." The idea is, that under all provocations and ill-usage it is gentle and mild. Hatred prompts to harshness, severity, unkindness of expression, anger, and a desire of revenge. But love is the reverse of all these. A man who truly loves another will be kind to him, desirous of doing him good; will be gentle, not severe and harsh; will be courteous because he desires his happiness, and would not pain his feelings.
1 Corinthians 13:5 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES a man under the influence of true love or religion does not make his own happiness or salvation the main or leading thing; he does not make all other things subservient to this; he seeks the welfare of others, and desires to promote their happiness and salvation, even at great personal sacrifice and self-denial. It is the characteristic of the man, not that he promotes his own worth, health, happiness, or salvation, but that he lives to do good to others. Love to others will prompt to that, and that alone. There is not a particle of selfishness in true love. It seeks the welfare of others, and of all others. That true religion will produce this, is evident everywhere in the New Testament; and especially in the life of the Lord Jesus
1 Corinthians 13:6 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Love does not rejoice over the vices of others or find happiness because others are found guilty of wrongdoing. It does not take malicious delight in hearing a report that someone has erred. The unsanctified heart is glad when an enemy falls into sin, or when an opponent makes a mistake that involves him in disgrace, but not so with love. It takes the opposite course, and seeks to help even an enemy when he is in trouble. Only those not sanctified by the truth find pleasure in the wrongdoing of others.
1 Corinthians 13:7 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE Is ever ready to believe the best of every person, and will credit no evil of any but on the most positive evidence; gladly receives whatever may tend to the advantage of any person whose character may have suffered from obloquy and detraction; or even justly, because of his misconduct. When there is no place left for believing good of a person, then love comes in with its hope, where it could not work by its faith; and begins immediately to make allowances and excuses, as far as a good conscience can permit; and farther, anticipates the repentance of the transgressor, and his restoration to the good opinion of society and his place in the Church of God, from which he had fallen. Bears up under all persecutions and mal-treatment from open enemies and professed friends; bears adversities with an even mind, as it submits with perfect resignation to every dispensation of the providence of God; and never says of any trial, affliction, or insult, this cannot be endured.
1 Corinthians 13:8 COMMENTARY PEOPLE’S NT COMMENTARY The superiority of love over all besides is shown by its survival of all with which it is compared. It is eternal and imperishable.

Wednesday – The Test of Love
Matthew 5:43-48 “ESV 43 ¶ "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:44 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE it is natural to man to avenge himself, and plague those who plague him; and he will ever find abundant excuse for his conduct, in the repeated evils he receives from others; for men are naturally hostile to each other. Jesus Christ design's to make men happy. Now he is necessarily miserable who hates another. Our Lord prohibits that only which, from its nature, is opposed to man's happiness. This is therefore one of the most reasonable precepts in the universe. But who can obey it? None but he who has the mind of Christ.
Proverbs 15:1 ESV “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Proverbs 25:21 ESV “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,”
1 Peter 3:9 ESV “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

Thursday – Love in Action
Luke 10:25-37 NLT “25 ¶ One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: "Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?" 26 Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?" 27 The man answered, "‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" 28 "Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live!" 29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied with an illustration: "A Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes and money, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. 31 "By chance a Jewish priest came along; but when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. 33 "Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt deep pity. 34 Kneeling beside him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver and told him to take care of the man. ‘If his bill runs higher than that,’ he said, ‘I’ll pay the difference the next time I am here.’ 36 "Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?" Jesus asked. 37 The man replied, "The one who showed him mercy." Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same."”
Luke 10:30 COMMENTARY THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is eighteen miles long, and descends about thirty-five hundred feet. About two miles from Jerusalem it passes through the village of Bethany, and for the rest of the eighteen miles it passes through desolate mountain ravines without any habitation save the inn, the ruins of which are still seen about half way to Jericho. This district from that time till the present has been noted for robberies, and Jerome tells that the road was called the "bloody way."
Luke 10:33 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES The Samaritans were the most inveterate foes of the Jews. They had no dealings with each other. It was this fact which rendered the conduct of this good man so striking, and which was thus set in strong contrast with the conduct of the priest and the Levite. They would not help their own afflicted and wounded countryman. He, who could not be expected to aid a Jew, overcame all the usual hostility between the people; saw in the wounded man a neighbour, a brother, one who needed aid; and kindly denied himself to show kindness to the stranger.
Luke 10:34 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Oil and wine. Common household remedies of ancient Palestine. Sometimes the two were mixed and used as a salve.
Luke 10:35 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Two pence. That is, two Roman denarii, now worth perhaps 22 cents, but then equivalent to two days’ wages.
Luke 10:36 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan had all been “near” to the hapless wayfarer in his time of need, yet only one of them acted like a “neighbour.” Neighborliness is not so much a matter of proximity as it is of willingness to bear another’s burdens. Neighborliness is the practical expression of the principle of love for one’s fellow man.
Ellen White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 382 – “Our Saviour manifested for us a love that the love of man can never equal. .. He did not remain in His holy, happy home, where He was beloved by all the heavenly host. He beheld our sore need, He undertook our case, and identified His interests with those of humanity. He died to save His enemies. He prayed for His murderers.”

I find this to be an interesting comment:

"The attributes that He prizes most are purity and love, and these are possessed only by the Christian." (SW 10)

Only the Christian possesses real love.
So before conversion what did I have?
Was it simply a lesser "degree" of love? No, it was another thing entirely.


Stewart.

I find that since God is love, it may well be impossible to love while not having God - the love of 1 Corinthians 13 is only born from God's living in us.

I agree with you lilone. The love of 1Cor 13 is only born from God's living in us. Perhaps the best thing that can be said of us when we are living without God in the world, is

"you... being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children [and to your friends]..."


Stewart

i can agree with this only in part. true; knowing God will show you what love is and how to show it, but to say that He won't give that gift to anyone unless they know him is a stretch i think. He gives patience, he gives hope...these things are gifts that comes from Him. I believe that to Love in full, one would have to know him but going from 1 corinthians 13:9 maybe we love in part also. but thats not the same as not having it at all. who knows what seeds God planted in his people?

"You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, and with ALL your mind. This is the first and great commandment."


Is it possible for ALL the heart, mind, soul and strength to express love for God and man?

Yes indeed!

Because no part of the Christian is necessarily reserved for sin... is it?
No part of the Christian is necessarily at enmity with God... is it?

While involved with Fl Pathfinders, they sang a song.

To the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

"Feelings come and feelings go
Feelings can be deceiving.
Trust alone on the Word of God
Cus' nothing else is worth believing."

Every time I am presented with this issue, that is what runs through my gray matter.