The root called love

Since February is generally considered as the month of love, let’s stick with the flow and talk about love this month.

I have asked myself several times what love is.  I remember when I was in my early 20’s I told a friend that I didn’t know what love was. Growing up I never really knew what it was like to be loved.  I had parents but they were both so busy with their own lives and its drama that they never really had time to show us much love.  I remember only getting a hug when it was my birthday or getting an affectionate smile when I did something right.

I saw love as a burden since those who were supposed to love me, usually bargained with it.   I got ignored until I was needed to run an errand. I therefore didn’t understand love or know it.  But when I told my friend, she only smiled and assured me I did know love, she asked, ‘are you not a Christian? Does Christ not live in you? You do know love’

I was taken aback because I was not talking about God's love. I thought to myself, I was talking about human love.  But what I didn’t realise then was that love is love at the basic root of it all.

You can separate and define it with all the terms that we put to it - philia, agape, eros etc, but the root of it all is one. God loved us and showed us this love through Christ. Christ teaches us how to love back.

God’s love and human love, are all rooted in one, GOD – LOVE-MAN, and all are centred in one root : Christ!  He started it all, John 1, in the beginning was the word (Christ), and he will end it all in love. John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that who so ever believes in him will inherit eternity.

That is why after talking about faith, hope, salvation, prophecies etc, Paul comes back to say, it is all nothing if we don’t know love.  God commanded Moses to tell Israel, to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and Jesus reiterated this by saying, the greatest of all the commandments is to love God first and  secondly, to love your neighbour as yourself. Why?  Because He is love.

That is why before we talk about any kind of love, for the next few coming days we will take our time to understand what love is, God's love, God's way.  It’s my prayer that we will all learn to love each other, and above all to love God more this month.



Written by Aba Dadson
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