Before we address the question, what's love got to do wit it? I wanna define what love is and what love is not.
I’ll start with what love is not.
Love is not a feeling
Love is not an emotion
Love is not lip service
As much as people say, “I feel like I love so and so” or they have excited emotions equating that to love or they are always saying the words, “I love you,” you would think that that’s what love is. But it's not.
Love, overall, is a person.
The bible says that God is love and love is God. If love is a Person and we are created in that Person’s image and likeness, then that means that love is not something that you do, it’s something that you are.
So what’s love got to do with it?
It has A LOT to do with it but not ALL to do wit it.
Let me explain what I mean. Love has A LOT to do wit it. We were created from love, for love, and to love. We were created by God, thus, we were created from love. Love is one of the main purposes He created humanity which means we were created for love. We were created to love because that’s the greatest commandment…to love God, love ourselves, and to love others.
That’s a whole lotta love!
Paul devoted an entire chapter on the supremacy of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. He defines in detail the essence of love in 14 of its characteristics. But imma give you the short version from the New Living Translation. Read and study the whole chapter, it's some good stuff on love.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 NLT “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
Love is the foundation and motivation for all of who God is and all that He does.
Love should be your foundation and motivation in your relationship as well.
Love, apparently is a necessity. However, it’s not an absolute necessity.
Love alone is not enough to make a relationship work. It doesn’t guarantee a successful relationship contrary to what most people seem to think. To have a happy and healthy relationship, love is indeed necessary and important.
But what’s really needed for a rich relationship is knowledge.
The bible teaches us in Hosea 4:6 that people perish because of a lack of knowledge. It doesn’t say a lack of love, but a lack of knowledge. It’s possible to have love and the relationship still perishes. We see this happening all around us with people. The divorce rate is high and people have lost the desire to date because of disastrous relationships.
Knowledge is key to a happy and healthy relationship.
When you talk about dating for marriage you have to remember that marriage is more than just a legal contract. It doesn't matter how much you love someone, it doesn’t matter how much that someone loves you or how you both make each other feel. You both have to know how to communicate, you both have to know how to relate well with each other, and many other things you need to know in order to have success.
I’m not talking from a personality perspective because we all have different personalities that you learn as you go. I’m referring to foundational knowledge. Like the Bible is a foundational book to learn God, His word, and His ways.
You’ll learn His heart for humanity. You’ll get His general instructions.
However, you won’t read in the bible a specific instruction for your personal life. For example, you won’t read Gwen I’m moving you Texas, or so and so I’m moving you to Atlanta. You won’t read that in the Bible. You will only get specifics through your personal relationship with God.
It’s the same with romantic relationships. There are foundational truths and things that need to be known and understood. For example, a man’s wiring and a woman’s wiring. There are certain things that God wired a man and a woman with that’s within all men and all women. As a man, do you know and understand how God wired a woman? As a woman, do you know and understand how God wired a man?
This knowledge is key to a healthy and happy relationship.
In season two of this podcast we are gonna dive into those details. You wanna be knowledgeable of the general relationship fundamentals and you wanna have knowledge of relationship specifics of the person you are dating. Having knowledge can expel a whole lot of confusion and misunderstanding. Knowing the differences between men and women and knowing how they are different will change your whole relational life when it comes to dating.
Proverbs 1:7 KJV says, Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
When it comes to relationships, giving love is not enough. You must know some things. First and foremost know God, know yourself, and then be relationally knowledgeable.
Knowledge is key. Knowledge Empowers You!
So when someone tries to manipulate you with their love. Ask them the question….What’s love got to do wit it?
Teaching is greatly needed today for relational knowledge, especially with all the present technology.
Technology has caused people to lose the human touch.
