The Most Important?

If one were to ask, what is the most important thing in Christianity, it could be argued that love is the most important thing.

When someone ash Jesus what was the greatest — therefore, the most important — command, he answered by quoting two Bible passages. The first said to love God. And the second said to love people.

That being said, can we come to an understanding of what love is. In English, we talk about: loving our wives, loving our country, loving our sports teams, and loving strawberries.

Then, there is love in the original language. It has four words that mean love. There is a word for love for that which one has natural connections to, like: family, country, etc. There is a word for love of common areas with: friends, co-workers, maybe. There is a word for love for that which overwhelms us. The "wow!" factor. It is usually connected to romantic love between men and women. But, the people used this word for love of the gods. So, the "Wow!" factor could be something other than physical beauty.

The word, the Bible uses for God's kind of love, in other literature, usually meant a fondness for one's wife and children. I didn't see this anywhere in my brief research, so I can't prove it, but I have a hypothesis about this.

During the time of the New Testament, arranged marriages were a little more common. So, if someone's parents picked out a good match for them (good character, hard worker, excellent family, beneficial business connection) he\she might be exactly "wowed" by their future spouse. But, they go along with their parents, and get married. And their new spouse might actually not be a horrible person. They might even be kind of nice. So, they develop a mutual respect, and, maybe even, fondness.

So, the writers of the New Testament seem to have taken this kind of nebulous word, and repackaged it as the kind of love God has.

Which is …

There are several passages, where it states that God loved people, so he gave his Son. And Jesus loved people, so he gave his life.

A simple definition of love could be: to give without any expectation of receiving anything back. Which would fit the picture of the Cross. God gave us — in Jesus — right standing with him, acceptance into his family, redemption, and justification, knowing there was nothing we could give in return.

And Scripture says we should follow God's example. We should love like he loves. We should give, and not expect anything back.

How would that look?