Love

Love

What is love? Affection, passion, sacrifice, desire, action, forgiveness, commitment, respect or loyalty; all of these are forms of love. Lately, love has drifted from these forms to the more noticeable ones, like passion. In my opinion, our society minimizes the need for genuine love. By this I mean that we, as a society, spend so much time focusing on only one type of love, such as passion; that we tend to not recognize the need for closeness and trust which is true friendship. Love is a broad emotion that can be powerful and demanding, but also at the same time it is rewarding and pleasurable.

It have noticed that one that has not received love in their life is often incapable of showing genuine love towards another. They have not learned to love because they were not first loved. If one was rejected by parents, rejected by friends, or grew up in a broken home; that person usually has a bad loving relationship with their mate. They say they love them however their relationship often reflects that what they grew up in. Love is never just words. Love is an action, or a sacrifice.

In Greek the word love is translated from the word agape. This type of love is from the bible. How does "agape love" differ from the type of love that we hear of today? The meaning of agape love is self-sacrifice. Agape love is unique and is distinguished by its nature and its character. 
Agape is love that came from God, whose very nature is love. God does not just love; He is love itself. Everything God does flows from His love. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely (humankind), not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is His nature to do so, and He is true to His nature and character.

The Heavenly Fathers love is great example that shows the characteristics of perfect love. He displays the greatest act of love for us by giving His one and only son up because He loved us so much that He did not want to see us perish. One passage from the Bible...