Definition Essay: What Does It Take To Love?

What does it take to love? This question can be simply answered: A heart that is willing. Having a heart that is willing to love means loving with the heart of God and not your own. When we as carnal people try to love with our own heart, we fail every time. Though the love that we give has different measures depending on the type and person, it is still love that is conditional. But when we love with the heart of God, we are able to love even our enemies.

We have to be spiritually in tune with God to even love God unconditionally. Situations may occur in our life where the love we have for God will be tested. There are times in our life where we want something so bad, and it does not happen for us. What do we do? Instantly, for some people,

How much do we love God? The bible tells us in John 14:15 that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. True love towards God is being willing to let go of the things that displease God totally. Not being willing to totally let go of the things that displease God is like committing adultery. We as the church are “the bride of Christ” (Ephesians 5:23-24) and when we continuously commit sin, we are placing our loyalty with the enemy, similar to when infidelity is found in a natural marriage. When we decide to let go of sin, we are showing our full commitment, loyalty, and true love for God. The best thing about this is, God helps us through the process!

Being created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27) is one reason we should love ourselves. If we find no other reason to love ourselves, we should because God has shared pieces of the many attributes He has with us when He formed us in our mother’s womb! If we have no love for ourselves, how much more will we love someone else, whom God has also made? Loving ourselves and loving God teaches us to appreciate how God has made us and what He has equipped us with enough to look deep inside and see how we can use the precious gifts God put in us to help someone

There are 2 things that we see in both the Old and New Testament that never change; the fact that the bible tells us to love God with all of our heart, soul, might and mind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, Luke 10:27). The best thing we can do is love with our all, as Jesus did when he died on the cross for us. Despite our imperfections, Jesus still displayed unconditional love toward us; unconditional meaning as wide as it is deep. What I mean by this is that our love unconditional should always remain-it should be never-ending. The word of God says that “love covers a multitude of sin” (1 Peter 4:8), and the same love that Christ used to cast our transgression “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12), this is the same love we are expected to show to our brother and sister when they offend us. God accepts us every day; even with our sin He loves us, yet one of the most difficult things for man to do is love someone past the things that make them far from perfect. This is the reason we should go the extra mile to love our enemies or those who hurt us. When we love with the heart of God, withholding love from anyone is