Like happiness, love is best defined by telling what it does. But, the very best way to describe love is to show it. God did this. Since He knows everything and since He IS love (1 Jn. 4:8), we are not surprised to learn that He not only loved the world, but that He sent His Son to die for the sins of the world (Jn. 3:16).
Now, because He actively loved those who hated Him (1 Jn. 4:10) and those who did not deserve love (Rom. 5:8), He showed that Divine love does not have to have love in return, but can lead the way by loving the unlovable. This is beyond friendship, beyond sentiment and beyond worth, but solely on God’s nature, He loves.
Most of us can love that which is lovely or affectionately. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Therefore, since God loved the unworthy, Christians are to do the same. I mean, God shows his love by doing good to the just and the unjust and therefore, we are to do this as well (Matt. 5:43ff; Gal. 6:10). Yet, this is not man’s love. But it based on the fact that God loved us first. And, so, we love as God loves. Christians are rooted in love (Eph. 3:17). We are to continue to grow in love (Eph. 4:16). We are to love truth (2 Thess. 2:10) and speaks the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Thus, when one is baptized and rises in a new life (Rom. 6:3-4), he puts on a new nature created in God’s likeness (Eph. 4:24). He can be tenderhearted, forgiving and kind (Eph. 4:32-5:2) and he is been taught by God to love (1 Thess. 4:9).
Now most assuredly, the individual that loves God will keep his commandments (1 Jn. 5:3), but the greatest of these commands is to love (Mk. 12:28ff) and anyone who loves God will love God’s children (1 Jn. 5:1) and no one who hates God’s children really loves God (1 Thess. 4:9). So, what is love? Love is being like God and doing that which God does because God is love. So, are you like God?