Love has been written about in literature and is the subject of poetry and songs.
Love is the reason we give flowers, cook a romantic dinner, or go away for the weekend.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned the words, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.”
John Lennon and Paul McCartney most likely struggled to write the lyrics to their hit song, using a total of 5 words in the English language to write the chorus; “All you need is love, all you need is love, All you need is love, love, love is all you need. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.”
Elvis sang, “Love me tender, Love me true, All my dreams fulfilled. For my darlin’ I love you, And I always will.”
Glen Campbell seemed to be more endeared to his Chevy pickup than anything else.
“I love my truck, she’s right outside
I ain’t got much love but I sure got a ride
It don’t matter who lived
It don’t matter who lied
I got my truck right by my side.”
Love is also a priority topic in the Bible.
For the first time I searched for the first use of the word in scripture.
Most of my English translations agree to the use, the ASV has one use earlier in scripture that the others translate as “kindness”.
I think it appropriate to find the first use of the word to demonstrate God’s love for us in a way we can understand.
Gen 22:2 is the scripture I found.
It’s not about the love of a man and woman.
It isn’t about a lusty love that blurs the purity of the word and emotion.
It uses the word in the truest sense of the Father and the Son by using Abraham and Isaac.
Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
God did not ask of Abraham anything that He wasn’t willing to do.
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rom 5:8
It would seem that Lennon and McCartney were just one word away from the truth.
All you need is God’s love!