
As a noun, LOVE is a person, a thing, and an idea. We get it that it’s an idea. Most often, LOVE is associated with that pie-in-the-sky, heavy sigh that accompanies romance. While it is true that LOVE can be felt, LOVE in its noun function is much more significant. LOVE is a person. 1 John 4:8 says “God is LOVE.” The use of nouns in this sentence can look like a mathematical equation: a=b is the same as b=a; therefore, God=LOVE is the same as LOE=God. If we are going to talk about LOVE, God cannot be left out of the equation. We have often made chocolate hearts and red roses the epitome of LOVE, but LOVE is God. Without God, LOVE is absent. Since God is LOVE, He was the first to think the idea of LOVE, and He deposited that LOVE in a place, a human body, so that we might experience the thing we desired, which was in fact, the person-Him-LOVE. LOVE is a noun which cannot be separated from God.
LOVE is also a verb. A verb can be either action or linking by definition. LOVE is an action verb; it does something. Most often, this action verb is transitive in nature, meaning it requires an object to receive its action. While I can say, “I LOVE,” most likely, I will say, “I LOVE you.” “You” is the recipient of my LOVE. God designed this verb, LOVE, for LOVE transfers from giver to receiver. There is no greater demonstration of this verb than “God so LOVEd the world.” The world was the receiver of God’s action of love, demonstrated in Jesus Christ.
When we speak of LOVE, the noun and the verb forms are closely linked. Because God defines LOVE, that which is done in LOVE is an action of God. 1 John 4: 7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another…He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” We have the full capacity to love when we truly know God.
Tip/Tidbit: Knowing God enables us to love Him, to love others, and to love ourselves. Embrace Him so that real love might abound in your life.