When I typed “What does love mean?” into Google, in quotes so that I would get the exact phrase, no less than 111,000 web pages came up. (I imagine the numbers change from day to day—even hour to hour, as I just tried it again and this time there were 112,000.) Although I certainly didn’t look at all of them, it was evident that they included love of all sorts: family love, romantic love, friendship, you name it…
But when I typed, “What does love require?” (once again, in quotes), there were only 350 pages listed, and most were in the Christian context. It’s those requirements that get to us. So I asked myself what love requires. Knowing that we can love only because we have been loved (see 1 John), the first is probably not a surprise; and the others follow.
Remembering that I am the beloved of God: frail, fallible sinner though I be;
Remembering that the other is the beloved of God, whether the other is a child, a co-worker, a beggar, or a terrorist planting a roadside bomb;
Prayer: to take on the mind and heart of Jesus, so that we grow in loving with God’s love, and that we become the mercy and compassion of Christ for the people we meet and for the world.
Our practical actions, I believe, flow from these three. I am sure that you can flesh out this short list, and I would be glad to hear from you with your own additions.
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God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.
(1 John 4:16-19)