You've had the Meaning of Love Wrong all Along

You read that right. Most of us have had love wrong all along. This is why it has been so elusive in our lives. We have set upon a course in our lives to find true love, only to be met with many disappointments. Have you ever thought that you might have the wrong misconception of what love actually is for us mortals? Let's critically examine the topic so we can really know what #love is. Read and learn life's most important lesson.

Love according to culture

"I love you!" How many times have you personally heard that oft-repeated phrase? Or how many times have you read it on social media? Or in books, magazines and on fan pages?Likely more than you can ever count. We have a habit of tossing those words around so freely and yet without their proper meaning. "Oh, I love this dress!" "Wow, I love that guy!" "I love Black Pink!" "I love him because he's so sexy!"Or "I love the way s/he looks at me."

Um, no you don't. That's the hard truth: you don't love those things. You don't love them because you have been led to believe that love is strictly an emotional response. And while it is only partly an emotional feeling, love is way much more than that. And that is why you and I have found ourselves #heartbroken so many times. It is why we have never understood what love is.

Stay with me here, because you are about to learn love's meaning and application.

Bad examples about love

Perhaps the worst examples of love come from music. There's no telling how many love songs that are out there or how many of them we have listened to. Here are some of the top-rated love songs of all time. See how many you recognize.

Beyonce: "Crazy in Love"

Abba: "The Winner Takes it All"

The Righteous Brothers: "Unchained Melody"

Whitney Houston: "I Will Always Love You"

Elton John: "Your Song"

Seal: "Kiss from a Rose"

The Beatles: "Something"

Ed Sheeran: "Perfect"

Percy Sledge: "When a Man Loves a Woman"

Foreigner: "I Want to Know What Love Is"

Common theme

Depending on your age, you know some or all of these former hit love songs. The truth is, you're better off if you don't know any of them! You see, all of these songs, while masterpieces about love, have one thing is common. They are all based on emotions. Feelings. Sex.

That's not what love is.

So what is love?

We have to go back in time to understand what love is. The female rock singer Pat Benatar was getting close with her song "Love is a Battlefield", a popular 1983 hit. But we have to go back thousands of years earlier rather than a few decades.

We turn to God's word the Bible. Oh, no! Oh, yes - we must if we are to really understand what love is!

The Old Testament writer Moses and his contemporaries used what is known as numerical parallelisms. Huh? We see this pattern in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere throughout the Bible. Even Jesus used them. Let's see.

1//2; 3//4; 6//7; 7//8; 7//77, et cetera. Still confused? An example follows.

"Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor" (Proverbs 12:24).

"When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise" (Proverbs 10:19).

"There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden" (Proverbs 30:18-19).

Are you seeing the pattern? The first two verses are the 1//2 pattern, the third a 3//4 pattern.

Let's look at another 1//2 pattern:"Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated" (Malachi 1:2-3).

God hated Esau? But God is love! Yes, He is, but God didn't hate Esau in the way we think of it in our modern parlance. God simply favored Jacob over Esau. It's an important concept to understand. God is love (1 John 4:8) so He loves everyone, but He favors his believers more.

God's Sinai Covenant

A covenant is an agreement between two or more people. It is an agreement that follows this pattern: You do this and I will do this. When God established His law (the covenant) for the people of Israel, it consisted of the Ten Commandments and 601 other laws regarding how people were to live (Exodus 20 - and Leviticus and Deuteronomy). But here is the Law summed up in two essential commands:

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5, NIV).

"Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:18, NIV).

This is where we get the Golden Rule as found in the gospels. "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Luke 6:31, NIV).

Did you catch that? The operative word is do. It's action.

Heard all these before? Jesus used them, too - quoting from the Old Testament. They are examples of the above-mention numerical parallelisms. Look:

"Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:37-39, NIV).

This is the 1//2.

Love is action, not emotions

Take a look: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul..." (Deuteronomy 19:12, NIV).

Love is a covenant where we do something for others and can expect reciprocation in kind. It's simply profound.

Take another look at what Jesus said: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24, NIV).

Getting the meaning of love now?

Decision time

Love is not about human emotions and self-love (which the Bible forbids), but rather love is about actions towards someone. Chasing after one's emotions leads to heartbreak and disappointments. How long will you suffer these before you practice real love?

Here is love in action:

"If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

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. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:3-8, NIV).

Let's drop all the hysterical nonsense of the world's idea of love and practice the love of God. Do this and you will understand love and be loved. God makes it plain. Praise His name!