What does “love” look like?

The problem with discussions of love in most Christian circles is that “love” is too often undefined.

I would assert that biblical love is Christlike love. Or, as Paul states:

“with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).

Jesus, of course, demonstrated what this love looks like when He went to the cross. Consequently, a person who is transformed by biblical love is a person that consistently lays down one’s life for others.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,” Philippians 2:5-9

Biblical love surrenders power for the sake of the other

Christ’s display of this kind of love on the cross also demonstrates what true power looks like. Christian power, in other words, is loving the other so much that one is willing and prepared to die for the other.

This means that in the kingdom of God power is manifested in love—self-sacrificing love! This kind of power stands in stark contrast to the way power works in the world.