Part 1
As soon as I hear or see the question “What is love?” immediately I go to “baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more”. I know that song has no redeeming value to helping answer the question but it sure is a catchy tune!
I remember when I was in high school thinking I was “in love” with someone yet having no way to accurately put those emotions and feelings into words. I just “knew I was in love”. So, what is love? Is love a feeling? Is it an “action”? Is love something you “fall” into? Is it something you can “fall out of”?
Over the next few weeks I want to give you 5 words that I think describe Biblical love. You are going to become very familiar with the story of Hosea and Gomer as we go through this together so if have not read the book of Hosea I want to encourage you to do so soon. Add it to your daily reading schedule and I promise you’ll have a fuller perspective on God’s justice and love as a result.
The first word we pull from the Hosea narrative is this:
Love is a CHOICE (Hosea 1:2-3a)
God told Hosea to go take a wife from among the sinful and outcast. She was not like him. He chose to seek her out as she was not pursuing him or desiring him. God’s first command for Hosea was to seek out someone to love. He didn’t hang out with her and begin to “fall in love” with her because of their mutual friendship and chemistry. No, he was told by God to find a wife and chose to love her, which is what he did.
God chose to pursue us and love us by CHOICE even when we were dead in our transgressions and sin. We were unlovable, outcasts, and content in our evil sin. YET He chose to love and put into action a plan that would re-unite God with man and return our relationship to it’s original state in the Garden. He chose us in Him before the creation of the world. We didn’t choose Him. He chose us.
Questions to think about:
1) Whom have I chosen to love?
2) Do my actions demonstrate that I am still choosing to love them?
3) What is 1 thing I can do today to portray my choice to love?
4) How does Christ’s choice to love me change the way I think about my love for others?
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