And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:16 NIV

The famous song What is Love sung by one-hit wonder Haddaway hit number 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1994. The catchy song depicts someone seeking to understand what it means to be loved by their partner. Singing “What is love, baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more” the songwriter is seeking to understand why the relationship has taken a turn for the worst and why the person they once felt love from is only bringing them pain. The world resonated with this catchy tune and to this day this song can be heard played over the stereo system in malls and stores all over. What is love? This simple question is one that at some point we all ask ourselves. Amazingly God understood that we would seek an understanding of love and provided us with the tools to better understand the emotions that so many of us want to understand and so we end up asking ourselves “What is love?” 

If you’ve been to a wedding recently you may have heard 1 Corinthians 13 read in part or in its entirety. 1 Corinthians 13 is commonly known as the love chapter. Christian artists For King and Country leaned heavenly on this chapter when writing their famous song The Proof of Your Love. In this chapter, the Apostal Paul outlines what love is by providing a list of things it does and does not do. Ultimately declaring that of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest of the three. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV

How can Paul speak so authoritatively about love? That question has baffled my mind for a long time. Paul grew up in a where his primary focus was his education. At an early age, he went off to study under the greatest teachers of his time and he did very well. Paul spent his early years not building relationships with people, and soon after finishing school he wanted to make a name for himself and he started hunting down and persecuting Christians. Paul was not in the business of making friends and yet in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul outlines what it means to express love in its purest form. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

I wonder if you’ve ever found yourself in the position that Paul was, not the prosecuting. But maybe you found yourself so wrapped up in your efforts to make a name for yourself that when you stopped to look around you noticed that somewhere along the way the relationships that you once held dear have fallen to the wayside. Maybe you’ve found yourself feeling like there isn’t anybody who loves you or that you love. Perhaps it's not that extreme, but there are times in our lives when we question the love that we have and the love that people have for us. We ask ourselves what it means to love and to be loved. Paul was confronted with this, and he found the answers. 

Paul while still Saul was confronted by love manifest, Jesus. In the famous story of Paul’s dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, which can be read in Acts chapter 9, Paul who was Saul was blinded and confronted by Jesus. His life would never be the same again. This marked the start of a journey that Paul would later write about, telling people that his relationship with Jesus was worth more than anything in the world.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  Philippians 3:8 NIV

Paul met the savior on the road and it changed his life. Paul opens up his letters to the churches addressing people he had met in person as well as people he would never meet calling them friends. Paul went from a community of one who destroyed the lives of others to a community that would eventually turn into the largest religious movement the world would ever know. But why does that mean that Paul gets to speak with authority on love in 1 Corinthians 13? It is because Paul knew Jesus. 

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 NIV

Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and he was changed forever, in a letter to the Romans Paul explains that God’s love is found in Christ Jesus, through this relationship with Jesus Paul began to understand what it means to love and to be loved. If you are struggling with what it means to love, if you are asking yourself that age-old question, “What is love”? May I suggest you look to the love of God? You will not find a better example of love. People have described the Bible as a love letter to humanity and rightfully so. The God of the Bible is seeking to love you and to show you what it means to love others. Will you accept his transforming love as Paul did? Who knows maybe through God’s love you can help others answer the question, what is love?