Love and What It Means to Me

Introduction

Many people are deceitful with love, but true love is unconditional and teaches us to be unselfish. For some people, love is a place where you put all of your treasures and happiness into one another. For others, love can be how they feel about a certain someone. We all have different ways of thinking about what love is and how we may feel towards love. Love comes in many different types, and the love we all want is the one that makes us feel some type of way for someone. Personally, I believe that love is an action, not just a feeling. If we really love somebody, we have to show it by how we act towards that person. If we don’t show our love by how we act towards that person, then we cannot truly be in love. Love requires us to be committed, be open to sacrifice, and show our understanding.

Defining Love and Its Meaning

The love you have for your family is the one that I believe is most important. Family love requires devotion, which means it is endless and limitless. This love is the feeling shared between a child and their parent after getting dropped off for their first day of school. It can even be the sometimes harsh rules parents impose on their children, which they may think are not very fair. The best part of this love is that you can act naturally, make mistakes, and you will most likely always be forgiven. This same love may also be shared between friends. With your friends, you know you will always have somebody you can talk to, especially about things that you might not be able to tell your parents. This type of love is having the experience of your first girlfriend in middle school. In my opinion, family love is the main piece to having a complete understanding of what love is. We need to love our family and friends first before we can indulge in falling in love with another person.

God's Teachings on Love

God is very detailed and clear about how we should love each other. The Bible says, “Dear children, let us love not with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18, New International Version). Instead of relying on our voice and words with love, God wants us to show our love in a physical way. God created us out of his love and he wants us to go out into the world and share his teaching and unconditional love. Matthew 5:44-45 states, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God asks us to love no matter who comes across us. God created all of us and wants us to act towards each other as if we were all family. My understanding of love is similar to God’s. I believe practicing God’s teachings of love will bring us closer to him. In Matthew 22:37, “Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” According to this verse, God demands that our love for him must be greater than any other love we may have for somebody. God’s first commandment states, “Thou shall not have no other God before me” (Exodus 20:3, King James Version). My pastor preaches that God is a jealous God and wants us to serve Him before others and all things. In conclusion, God’s love for us remains unchanged. In John 3:16, it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Conclusion

To conclude the essay, no matter what we go through in life, we will always know that God sacrificed the greatest gift of all, his Son. God's sacrifice of his son is an example of the ultimate expression of love. This love is not only a testament to the depth of God's compassion but also serves as an enduring reminder of the lengths to which love can go. Love, in its truest form, transcends the boundaries of human understanding and connects us to a higher purpose.

References

1. New International Version Bible. (n.d.). 1 John 3:18.
2. New International Version Bible. (n.d.). Matthew 5:44-45.
3. New International Version Bible. (n.d.). Matthew 22:37.
4. King James Version Bible. (n.d.). Exodus 20:3.
5. New International Version Bible. (n.d.). John 3:16.