“What is love?”

I’m sure some people after reading the title of this blog post are singing out loud or at least in their heads the tune of the 1993 song ‘What is love?’ by Haddaway. But it is not the song that prompted this blog post, rather, it is because last night at ‘Redefine‘, our Sunday evening young person’s Bible study, we held a joint meeting with pupils of St David’s College in one of their halls.

The topic of the night, given that this Tuesday is Valentine’s day: February 14th, was ‘What is love?’

With so many songs written about love, like the Haddaway one, it must be something important to us, to humanity; but what is it? Why do we spend so much time, money and effort on this thing called love?

Our centre director Tim Gough gave a great short talk about what love is from a Christian perspective, after giving the young people time to discuss amongst themselves what they thought love was.

Some of the answers were, love for animals, love for food, love for family; but we still had no clarity on what love is.

So, we turned to the Bible, specifically John 3:16. Tim spoke of how God is the creator and originator of love. If we want to know what love is, and what it is all about, then we need to go to its inventor, its creator to find out what it really is.

As 1 John 4:8 says, ‘God is love‘. So everything that love truly is, God is; and “This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us. He sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.” – 1 John 4:9-10.

So this Valentine’s day with all of its roses, fluffy hearts and trinkets, remember what love truly is. God sending His only Son Jesus to die in our place on a cross. Let us say a big thank you to Him for His great love for us. If you want a love song for Valentine’s day; check out Matt Redman’s ‘This is how we know.” There is also an explanation of the background to the song here.

We hope you have a great Valentine’s day; and even if you do not receive a single card through the mail; don’t forget that the Creator of the Universe loves you.

Be Blessed!