LOVE’S PORTRAITS AND PRACTICAL CHECKLIST

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye LOVE one another; as I have LOVED you, that ye also LOVE one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have LOVE one to another – John 13: 34-35

LOVE is NOT THEORETICAL. Love is PRACTICAL. Love is a word that can only be properly defined in terms of action, attitude, and behaviour. Paul the apostle had no room for abstract, theoretical definitions. Instead, he tried to present what love looks like when we see it, by painting fifteen separate PORTRAITS of LOVE in the space of four short verses and fifteen verbs, all of which have “love” as their subject. The popular contemporary notion of love is that it is an emotion or a feeling – we love chocolate, we love football, we love the movies, or we love our jobs. In the biblical definition of AGAPE, love is PRACTICAL. Love ACTS. Love is more of an ACTION than an emotion. Love is more of a VERB than a noun.

Here is the list of the fifteen active portraits of love:
- love is patient
- love is kind
- love is not jealous
- love does not brag
- love is not arrogant
- love does not act unbecomingly
- love does not seek its own
- love is not provoked
- love does not take into account a wrong suffered
- love does not rejoice in unrighteousness
- love rejoices with the truth
- love bears all things
- love believes all things
- love hopes all things
- love endures all things

This beautiful Love chapter can therefore be likened to a practical inspection checklist by which we can evaluate our lives relative to the Christ-like character to which we are being conformed (Rom.8:29; 12:2). You may ponder on the question: How do I fair on the LOVE CHECKLIST?