You may come to the conclusion that I am bat crazy after this one. Love is one of the most complex and mysterious concepts that exists. We are constantly overloaded with the word and do not understand how to do it well.
When I do an internet search for the term love, I often receive not love but the product or measurement of love. They are all good things. For instance, love is a mix of emotions, behaviors, and beliefs associated with strong feelings of affection, protectiveness, warmth, and respect for another person.
Then, when I look to scripture to find out what love is, I am just as confused with what I find. 1 Corinthians 13 is the gold standard for love, yet somehow it leaves me discouraged and no closer to love. It’s like I know how it looks, but I don’t know what it is. Like the wind, I know what it feels like, but how do I tell you what it is?
I am going to make a bold statement. These verses and definitions are not actually love itself, they are by-products of love, not the source.
In the same way, the cold on my cheek is not the wind, it is the by-product. So then, what is love?
Love is genuine knowledge. The more I contemplate this idea, the more convinced I am that it is true. I argue that these two words are interchangeable and the same thing. I have searched for something to disprove or warn against the danger of holding this idea. I have come up empty.
To love is to seek or have genuine knowledge—nothing more and nothing less. When I am called to love my brother, it is a call to seek more genuine knowledge.
When the call is to love my enemies, this is it. Seek more genuine knowledge. This is the only substance that can replace love without leaving it unfulfilled. The more genuine knowledge, the more full the love becomes. Love’s container is boundless. The depth of love is equal to the depth of genuine knowledge.
Love is not an emotional attachment but produces the attachment. You feel the effects of love as a result of gaining genuine knowledge. You can not experience love outside the confines of genuine knowledge. You may feel something similar, but it is not love.
The proof that God loves me is his genuine knowledge of me, not what he does or provides. His complete, lacking nothing, knowledge of me is the purest form of love. The proof that he wants me to love him is that he tells me the truth. The genuine knowledge God offers to us, as Christians, is the opportunity to love Him. Without a way to know God, we would be unable to love him. Love and genuine knowledge are exactly the same in every aspect.
Who we love will shape who we are.
Who we know will shape who we are.
I believe we spend more time judging people’s knowledge of us rather than judging our knowledge of others. We must genuinely know the person, not just what that person knows. When we love what that person knows, we end up “falling” out of love when what that person “knows” changes.
Perfect love can transcend growth. It can transcend deficiencies. It transcends belief. Love can endure the changes that will occur in someone’s life.
We must genuinely know(love) the sinner to separate the sin from the sinner. Without knowing the truth about the sinner, we can never distinguish between the sin and the sinner.
Love can survive bad performance and bad character.
Genuine knowledge can survive bad performance and bad character.
Understanding the extent of your ignorance of love takes an incredible amount of genuine knowledge.
“To love means to tell the truth. If you tell the truth, you must let go of what you want because you don’t know what will happen when you tell the truth. Now don’t misunderstand me. You are not telling the truth if you craft your message to gain a particular outcome. You are manipulating” – Jordan Peterson
So, what is love? It is the genuine knowledge of pure, unfiltered truth. Knowledge of God, others, and ourselves.
Nos & Rehtaf, Dnabsuh 