As a teenager in the 1980s, I loved the rock band Foreigner; I still do, and I recall listening to one song repeatedly, "I Want to Know What Love Is." It's a song that is still popular today and leads to our outermost topic, "Charity Love," in our mini-series, The Breastplate of Righteousness, within the overall series, The Wonderfully Weird Armor of God.
As the lyrics say in the song, "I Want to Know What Love Is," we have taken a "little time to think things over" to "better read between the lines" of love. At this point, we have looked at three types of love – Affection, Friendship, and Romantic Love. Now we explore Charity Love, understood as Divine Love or Agape Love. This Love is the highest and most unselfish of the loves. It's the love the Apostle Paul discusses, "and now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13)." Upfront, understand Charity Love is a foreigner when it comes to our fallen condition. It goes against human nature; however, all the other loves fall into Hell without it adequately placed in life.
When Charity Love is not supreme, the other loves become demons, seducing our souls toward despair and death, forever dangling us over the pit of misery and emptiness. God is Love (1 John 4:8), and it's God's Love that removes any threat of the other loves becoming beasts themselves. To be clear, when the Apostle John says, "God is Love," he does not mean "Love is God." When we define Charity Love opposite of its intended meaning, the significance of falsehood falls on man's emotional feelings rather than God's will.
Jesus clearly stated, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love (John 15:10)." Unconditional is only valid if Christians "will" remain in God's Love by doing what he says. Foreign to public opinion, Charity or Agape Love is not all about unconditional love but primarily about a love that comes from the will — CHOICE! Once a person willfully or decides to step out of God's Love, so-called unconditional love is released until the "prodigal son" chooses to step back into God's favor. When in God's will, this foremost Love gives a person the ability to love as God Loves, that is, love the unlovable, the undeserving, and the ugly. You are out of God's will if you're unloving towards these things. Choose Charity Love overall.
When hearing the song "I Want to Know What Love Is." for the first time, I'll admit that I only knew it upon the shoulders of an emotional teenager. But now I'm older, I see how love shines through the "heartache and pain" of climbing love's mountain and through the clouds of choice. The truth is, at this advantage point, God is Love, and I'm so thankful I finally found it to change this lonely life into a love that only comes through the Love of God protected by The Breastplate of Righteousness.
With Love,