What Is Love? Love Is Giving Righteousness

What Is Love? Here Is My Answer

Love as a noun: God. Love is God, God is Light, Light is Life.

“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” — 1 John 4:8

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” — 1 John 1:5

Before love is anything you do, it is Someone you know. You cannot give what you have not first received from Him.

Love as a Verb: Giving Righteousness

Love as a verb: love is giving righteousness. And righteousness is giving the right thing (noun or verb) to the right person, at the right time, at the right place — when you have the opportunity to give it.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” — John 3:16

See it in the verse itself: God gave the right thing (His Son) to the right persons (a perishing world) at the right time — and the gift still stands today.

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.” — Galatians 6:10

Example 1: The Wrong Thing — “Be Warmed and Filled”

Suppose a brother stands before you naked and hungry, and you say to him, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled” — but you give him nothing. Right words. Right person. Wrong thing. That is not love; that is a sermon where bread was due.

“And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” — James 2:16

Example 2: The Right Everything — The Good Samaritan

Now see righteousness done rightly. A man lay wounded on the road to Jericho:

The right thing — oil and wine for the wounds, a beast to ride, coins for the innkeeper. Not advice. Treatment.
The right person — not his priest, not his kin, not his friend. A stranger. The one in front of him.
The right time — in his need, that very hour. Not next week, when the wounds had spoken.
The right place — where he lay, on that road. Love went to the ditch; it did not summon the ditch to the temple.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine.” — Luke 10:33-34

That is love as a verb. That is giving righteousness.

The Order of Giving

Renew your mind, and give righteousness at all times — in this order:

First to yourself. Even the commandment assumes it: love your neighbour as yourself. A starving man cannot feed a nation; receive from God first, then overflow.
Second to your family. “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” — 1 Timothy 5:8
Third to your neighbour. The stranger on your road. The wounded one in front of you.

And know this: all of these are equal to giving righteousness to God Himself.

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” — Matthew 25:40

I love you all beyond imagination — but God loves you more!

God bless you.

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