Freedom Ministries

This Definition is going into my book, entitled "Becoming Love: Living the Gospel from the Inside Out."

Love’s Definition

Love is the one truly qualified source to provide guidance, direction, correction, and wisdom in every matter of life. Love is not merely one option among many competing voices. It is not simply a feeling, a mood, an emotion, or a sentimental affection. Love is the highest governing reality because Love originates in God Himself. Scripture declares, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Therefore, true Love is not something humanity invents, redefines, or manipulates according to personal desire. True Love is received from God, revealed by God, and demonstrated most clearly through the life, character, sacrifice, and heart of Jesus Christ.

Love is the divine standard by which my thoughts, words, motives, attitudes, decisions, relationships, and actions are to be examined. It is the governing influence that teaches me how to think, what to say, when to speak, when to remain silent, how to respond, how to forgive, how to confront, how to serve, how to sacrifice, and how to live faithfully before God and others.

In other words, Love is not simply something I am called to show occasionally. Love is what I am called to become.

This means Love is not an accessory added to the Christian life. It is the substance of the Christian life. Love is the evidence that God’s life is being formed within me. It is the inner transformation by which my character begins to reflect the heart of the Father. I do not merely practice Love as a behavior; I am progressively shaped into Love as an identity.

Love becomes the lens through which I interpret life. It becomes the filter through which I evaluate my motives. It becomes the discipline that governs my reactions. It becomes the wisdom that restrains my flesh. It becomes the truth that confronts my selfishness. It becomes the power that heals what sin, fear, pride, rejection, and woundedness have distorted within me.

Love has the authority to guide my thinking because Love does not think from selfish ambition, fear, resentment, pride, or insecurity. Love thinks from truth. Love thinks from purity. Love thinks from faithfulness. Love thinks from the heart of God.

Love has the authority to guide what I say because Love does not use words carelessly. Love does not speak to dominate, punish, manipulate, accuse, or destroy. Love speaks truth, but it speaks truth with redemptive purpose. Love can be gentle, but it is not weak. Love can be direct, but it is not cruel. Love can confront, but it does not condemn. Love’s words are governed by the desire to bring life, clarity, correction, healing, and restoration.

Love has the authority to guide what I do because Love is never a passive sentiment. Love acts. Love serves. Love gives. Love protects. Love sacrifices. Love takes responsibility. Love moves toward what is righteous, even when it is costly. Love is not proven by emotion alone; it is proven through faithful action.

Love is also trustworthy because Love always has my true best interests at heart. This does not mean Love always gives me what I want. In fact, Love often refuses what my flesh wants because Love is committed to what my soul needs. Love may correct me when I am wrong. Love may restrain me when I am impulsive. Love may confront me when I am self-deceived. Love may require surrender when I want control. Love may lead me through discomfort because it produces maturity, holiness, wisdom, and freedom.

This is why Love is different from self-interest. Self-interest asks, “What do I want?” Love asks, “What is good, true, righteous, and life-giving?” Self-interest seeks comfort. Love seeks wholeness. Self-interest seeks advantage. Love seeks redemption. Self-interest protects the ego. Love transforms the soul.

Love’s singular motive is my true success. But true success must be understood from God’s perspective, not the world’s. True success is not merely achievement, recognition, wealth, comfort, or personal satisfaction. True success is becoming who God created me to be. It is living in union with His heart. It is being formed into the image of Christ. It is learning to live from truth rather than fear, from humility rather than pride, from faith rather than control, from service rather than selfishness, and from freedom rather than bo***ge.

Therefore, Love is not simply interested in helping me get through life. Love is committed to forming me into the kind of person who can live life rightly. Love does not merely want me to survive. Love wants me to become whole. Love does not merely want me to behave better. Love wants my inner life transformed. Love does not merely want outward conformity. Love wants inward union with the nature and character of God.

To become Love means that my life is no longer governed primarily by fear, pride, anger, lust, insecurity, control, selfishness, bitterness, or self-protection. It means I am learning to allow the nature of God to become the ruling influence within me. Love becomes the answer to the question, “What should govern me?” Love becomes the answer to the question, “Who am I becoming?” Love becomes the answer to the question, “What does God want my life to reveal?”

Love is the qualified source because Love alone knows how to lead without corruption. Love alone desires what is truly good. Love alone can confront without hatred, correct without rejection, guide without manipulation, and sacrifice without selfish ambition. Love is pure in motive, perfect in wisdom, faithful in purpose, and redemptive in action.

So, when I say that Love is what I am to become, I am saying that the goal of my life is not merely to know about God, speak about God, or perform religious duties for God. The goal is to be so transformed by God that His Love becomes the defining reality of my life.

Love becomes my source.

Love becomes my guide.

Love becomes my motive.

Love becomes my measure.

Love becomes my way of life.

And ultimately, Love becomes the clearest evidence that Christ is being formed in me.

Jesus did not let WHERE MEN WERE NOT PRESENTLY WILLING TO BE decide who He was or where He was headed. WHAT THEY WEREN'T ABLE TO SEE AND RECOGNIZE did not determine His vision. He was focused on being the Light of the world. Neither man nor man’s opinion could change who Jesus was. He did not make MAN His Source. His Source remained singular.

If you are letting people get on your nerves, it is an indication that you need to get new nerves and change the perspective that is having the current ability to fray your nerves. When I allow the reality of love to come in and transform me. I no longer see and understand things the same way as I did. I understand that I don’t wrestle with flesh and blood, but the spiritual wickedness that has made its way into the position of directing the thoughts, perceptions, and choices of the person I’m interacting with. The main issue is the battlefield of my mind: what I’m going to allow to have my attention, direct my focus, and define my understanding. Because the enemy is attempting to use what that other person is focused on to be able to influence and begin directing me based upon what I’m seeing and dealing with. It wants to use a vessel that is currently yielded to that controlling spirit to find access to me and begin controlling my thoughts, my choices, my perception, and define my day. The fruit of the Spirit working in me is Love. Love is the only substance that qualifies to empower the manifestation of my freedom from the lies and deceptions of the enemy that uses all that has been made available and at the disposal of the enemy to get me to move my focus off from the Truth and thus surrender my self-control. I begin “being controlled” rather than being “in control.”

The final outward manifestation of Love working in me, as listed in Galatians 5, is “Self-Control”. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells me that God hasn’t given me the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and “Self-Control”. (Translated as “a sound mind” in some transcripts) The Spirit of God wishes to come and dwell within you and empower you to participate in the great exchange – His power for your weakness. Give Him your weakness, lay it at His feet, and allow Him to instill within you His power. He will help you to move into the reality of scripture that says,

“What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]” (Romans 8:31 ampc)

“Looking into their eyes, Jesus replied, ‘Humanly speaking, no one, because no one can save himself. But what seems impossible to you is never impossible to God!’” (Matthew 19:26 tpt)