ELEMENTS OF LOVE

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The true character of love exhibits active, conative, transformative, and inspirative functions as necessary elements for pursuing life of sanctity and fulfilment.

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In recent times, it's become a style to start every presentation or lecture on love by listing its types in Greek; either the four main types found in the Greek NT or the eight types found in Greek philosophy. Well, in this one, we want to avoid this cliché and leave it in the ballpark of love whisperers. So, using passages from John 3:16 and 1 John 4:1-19, we are going to identify some powerful elements of love and how they all function together. The text says,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

This is a testimony that love is active. God loved the world so he gave. He put his love into action by giving. This is to show that love must go beyond just verbal utterance or thinking it. It is active! It is not just about bleating out "I luh' you bae" but not putting in work to sustain the relationship. It is not just posting "my thoughts and prayers" on social media with heart and the praying hands emojis but not being sensitive and selfless enough to make the changes needed or render the support necessary to bring hope and make the lives of the suffering better. Love must be manifested in an active manner and not passively portrayed. The word houtos (ούτως ) which is translated as “so” in the phrase “For God so loved” is also translated, “in this manner”. Hence, to expose the import of the text we could translate it as,

“For in this manner God loved the world: therefore He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”

He gave accordingly to the measure of the depth of his love for the world. So the manifestation of your active doings towards another party as a lover is the direct reflection of the measure of the depth of love you have. So “how deep is your love?” You may sell snake oil all you want to profess your love but there is always a day of reckoning when all will definitely be tested on the active and conative scales and there the true measure will be exposed.

So yes, love is conative. It is an act of will which is manifested as a behaviour. In fact, the giving of his one and only son was an act of will, and that marked the beginning of the manifestation of his love. The Apostle John actually shows why we as believers bring completion to the manifestation of this love as he states:

Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this love is perfected in us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world (1 John 4:11-12, 17 NET).

The perfect participle teteleiomene (τετελειωμενη) is from the verb teleioo (τελειόω) which means to complete or make perfect like finishing a race or accomplishing a task. Therefore, we (being the ones who have benefitted from the love of God through the giving of his one and only son for our atonement) by loving one another become the manifestation of the completed form of the love of God. Also in John 3:16, the love offers a choice to believe, and this belief brings eternal life.

These indicate that love is transformative. When God out of love gave his one and only son to the world, the intent was to bring salvation and eternal life (1 John 4:10) to those that will receive and thus the transformation from the life of a sinner to saved one. Every manifested act of love should bring transformation (1 John 4:9).

love inspires and encourages us to overcome fear and break barriers and achieve greatness that will affect the lives of others positively.

In that endeavour to bring transformation, love encourages and inspires others to overcome fear or self-doubt to break barriers and achieve greatness. Therefore, love is inspirative! And this is a rarely used adjective, but it fits the description. Paul, like a father, encouraged Timothy to kindle the gift of God in him to pursue his call as leader in the church (2 Tim 1:6-8). Paul admonishes Timothy saying, “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7).

We know that the Holy Spirit as the parakletos is one who stands by you as your total support system and in this support, system is power, love and self-control. In this case, the Holy Spirit inspires us to love and be loved. This love inspires and encourages us to overcome fear and break barriers and achieve greatness that will affect the lives of others positively. John supports this when he states, By this love is perfected in us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love (1 John 4:17-18 NET).

Love within, gives us confidence and drives out fear. A perfect example is Jesus Christ who out of love for his father took the form of man, went through all the humiliation, and suffered all the pain and agony so as to fulfil his father’s will of reconciling the world back onto himself. Consider the case of a father encouraging and guiding his little, tiny tot to take her first five steps without the walker. The love of the father gives the tot confidence and takes the fear away. It is my prayer that as you have read this writeup to this point, the information will manifest in your everyday life as you pursue your daily activities towards the fulfilment of your purpose in life as ordained by God. Stay awake and keep loving. Blessings!