Love is...

 Our society makes much of love. But arguably it hardly knows what it means. 

All human loves are disordered. 

And my little corner of conservative evangelicalism (a bit middle class and buttoned up and so on) has perhaps been a bit shy of love. It sounds a bit emotional. So we have often wanted to say it isn't that. Or not just that. We have rightly said that love is much more than a feeling. 

In marriage, we have rightly said that love is not just about being in love. It is a promise and a commitment. 

When it comes to God, we know that love leads to obedience. Love and sin cannot properly go together. 

And when we speak of loving the church family we have stressed practical acts of service which seek the good of others.

 Secular British society could learn something, I reckon, from the preceding paragraphs. 

My bit of the church might do well to study The Song of Songs. It has much to say about the love of Christ for his church, and vice versa. And also plenty to tell us about human love. There is more longing, intensity, passion, delight than we cold fish might sometimes care to embrace. 

If we are scared to call love an emotion, call it an affection, then. That sounds a bit more 17th Century, and we like it there. Yes, love with mind, will and hand. But also with some heart. And if your heart is a little cold and you don't feel a lot of love for God or for others, that too is something to pray for and seek. It is not the only thing. It is not to be made an idol of or obsessed about. Sometimes we won't feel very loving and we still ought to love. But let us pray for a consistent heart-felt love.   

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart."