Love is the best. We all love it. A flood of songs have it as their subject. It is what prompts a deepening of every meaningful relationship. God is full of it. Jesus died because of it. We are saved by it. As a result, it is born in us in a new way. It is the essence of the greatest commandment. I find it interesting that the most familiar verse in the Bible is based upon it (John 3:16). It is equally interesting that the most oft read passage at weddings (perhaps most popular chapter in the Bible) is one of the greatest descriptions of it (1 Corinthians 13). Without it, we are nothing. That is the good news. So, there you have it. We are steeped in love conversation and theology, experiencing it from the abiding Holy Spirit.
Something about love is often neglected in these conversations. There are degrees of love. Just as there are degrees of faith (mustard seed sized, no faith, little faith, such great faith). Similarly, love has texture to it. There are different kinds of love: agape, philos, eros. But, there are also degrees and depths of expression.
In reading the Bible, it is easy to gloss over passages that speak of the purity or depth of love. “Love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). “Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9). “May the Lord make your love grow for one another and for everyone else” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). “May you have power to grasp how wide, how long, how high and how deep is the love of God” (Ephesians 3:18). “My prayer is that your love may grow in knowledge and depth of insight” (Philippians 1:9).
The fact is that even those who have experienced the love of God have different levels of grasping that love. Also, those of us who express love, do so at differing levels of maturity and purity and sacrifice. A profoundly important prayer is for God to grow our love for Him and for that which He loves. We should not just assume that if we are loving people, that we have the full depth of the love of God.
Consuming love is just that- it consumes us. If we function from the premise “love is an emotion”, then it really doesn’t make sense to “grow in love.” But, if it is an attribute, then we must grow in it. That should be a daily prayer.