I Want to Know What Love Is: Confessions of the Wounded but Living (Conclusion)


I must confess I am a not a learned theologian. Sure, everyone's a theologian, but I know I am not like to great learned Church Fathers, divines, and sages God has graced His Church throughout the ages to reflect and provide prayerful discourse to help believers understand the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

I have a vision of going to seminary and having a "backside of the desert" experience with God, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and learning from Him and the saints of time's past and present. But I am a college student at a secular university with a very busy schedule so I cannot immerse myself in the Scriptures and the Great Tradition of the Church as much as I would like. So writing on this topic with trepidation and hopefully with the grace of God.

The Apostle John says that God is love (1 John 4:8). Though some may use 1 Corinthians 13 for an argument to the contrary, the Holy Writ doesn't actually defines what Love is. It tells of it's mannerisms or outward manifestations. But what is it? Well I believe we may never can define it (read Him). We not supposed to...

Though we cannot define it through as if it can be observed it under a microscope, we who are recipients of God's grace have to proclaim this Love. Jesus Christ told Nicodemus,
" For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

I will say that Love is the giving of Godself towards His creation. Love, I believe, is that attribute of God being Good towards that which is wholly other than Himself. I thank God for Karl Barth for conceptualizing this for me to understand. This action called Love is communicative within the Triune Being. Jesus revealed to his disciples that the Father loves the Son (Jhn 3:35; 5:20). In these passages, Jesus says that the love of the Father for the Son is manifest in the act of the Father giving all things and shows the Son all that the work the Father does. Love is truly God giving all that He is within Himself (perichoresis) and out towards us, His creatures.

The Lord God Almighty has extended the grace toward His creation by giving it sustaining life, beauty and significance. Towards humanity, that peculiar creature, God has showed his Love towards us in the coming of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. God offered His Son as the most excellent sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world.

So truly as the redeemed, I do wanna know what Love is, and the living God has shown me and continually does show me His Love in His dear Son my Lord, my God, my King, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.