Christians should love Jesus

    

Some special qualities of love

Paul, an ancient Christian apostle who wrote thirteen of the documents in the New Testament, cited these qualities in his classic statement on the “gift” of “love” (Greek noun agapen) in his first letter to his Christian friends in Corinth. see 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. He said “love

• is patient
• and kind
• does not envy
• or boast
• is not arrogant
• or rude
• does not insist on its own way
• is not irritable
• or resentful
• does not rejoice at wrongdoing
• but rejoices with the truth
• bears all things
• believes all things
• hopes all things
• endures all things
• never ends.”

These qualities of love in one’s relationships with others are timeless. They are as important for individuals today as they were for the ancient people of Corinth, a port city with several temples to pagan gods and a reputation for “wanton sexuality”. 19 So these ancient Romans, and perhaps some of Paul’s Christian friends, had some important lessons to learn about love in their personal relationships. An expression of love without some of these qualities is probably not a very good gift. And the inclusion of these qualities in God’s gift of love makes this divine gift superior to those of “faith” and “hope”. (see 1 Corinthians 13:13)

A summary perspective on love as described in the Bible

Basically this word “love” that appears in the translations of the Hebrew and Greek documents of the Bible refers in its verbal and noun forms to a particular emotional quality that is expressed or is present in regard to the relationships that individuals have with other individuals, objects, circumstances, or actions in their lives.
In the Old Testament this word “love” is translated from the Hebrew words ’ahab, ’aheb, and ’ahabah. According to Vine, the verb form of these words denotes “a strong emotional attachment to and desire either to possess or to be in the presence of the object” or a person.20 In regard to a relationship with another person, the emotion may be a sexual desire for a legitimate marriage to a person of the opposite sex, or it may refer to the emotion of “love” that operates in relationships between various relatives in families, or it may refer to a special emotional bond that works between friends or even with one’s master, or that should be implemented in one’s relationships with “neighbors”, or to God in his relationships with individuals and the Israelites. But the word “love” is also used to refer to the emotional connection that Solomon had with many “foreign women”, many of whom were among his “700 wives”(1 Kings 11:1,3) So I conclude that there is nothing particularly special about this emotion as it is referenced in the documents of the Old Testament.
But in the documents of the New Testament this word “love” that is translated from the Greek words agapao and agape seems to denote a Christian quality of emotion that is distinctively unselfish and subservient, particularly in regard to one’s relationship with God, but also in regard to relationships with other individuals as well as other Christians. And the Greek word phileo, which is also translated into the word “love”, means “tender affection”, according to Vine.21 So I assume that the level of emotion that is being expressed by this word is somewhat different or less than that of “a strong emotional attachment” that is being expressed by the Hebrew words ’ahab or ’aheb, and ’ahabah that are translated as “love” in the Old Testament.
When Jesus summarized all of “the Law” in the Old Testament in response to a question from a Pharisee, he used the Greek word agapao for the emotional expression of “love” in his answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”. (Matthew 22:37-38) I conclude that Jesus is stating that a Christian must “love” God completely and passionately with his or her total being, and that the “love” of a Christian for his or her “neighbor” or relative or friend or enemy or fellow Christian must be selfless and sincere. And Paul’s list of the “special qualities” of “love”, as cited in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 above add further qualities to the nature of Christian “love” as it is to be understood and expressed by Christians in their lives. Such “love” as defined by Jesus and Paul is certainly a godly virtue that is GOOD forever.