“Love is in the Air” is a 1970s disco song sung by John Paul Young. It was written to be a very light and casual song, and it quickly caught on and made it to the number 1 spot for several weeks. The theme of love has been dubbed the month of February for thousands of years. The roots of this began with the Greek and Roman mythology of Eros and Cupid, which still overshadow this month even to this day.
So why all this fuss about the four-letter word love? What is love, and what is it all about? How can it be floating in the air we breathe, yet so desperately sought by so many people? Google returns 10 billion answers when you search for “what is love,” and here are a few of the results. Love is a force of nature; is having a life partner; a sentiment not able to be characterized by words; is respect; is vulnerability; is a mix of emotions, behaviors, and beliefs associated with strong feelings of affection, protectiveness, warmth, and respect for another person.
With millions of opinions of what love is and how it acts, how can we truly establish a baseline for whether we are experiencing and giving love or not? John tells us in 1 John 4:7-10 that the definition of love is Yahweh God. John tells us that love comes not only from God but also from His very nature. For many, this is a struggle to accept, given the “harsh” and judging nature that God exhibits in the scripture. Yet when you understand His character of righteousness, blended with love, mercy, and grace, these actions fall into place perfectly.
The Hebrew word used here is ahavah, and the Aramaic word is Khuba. Both words have similar meanings. They refer to something dear to one’s heart, something for which one feels the kind of love expressed in words and actions. In Hebrew and Aramaic, love is not an emotion or something that is erratic and uncontrollable, it is an action verb. Everything that God has done and will do is an expression of His very nature of love. God showed His ahavah / khuba love to us by sending Jesus, His only son, to be a substitute sacrifice for us, so that we could be restored to a relationship with Him and His ahavah/khuba love.
Throughout the month of February, we will examine the different Hebrew words for love, and they will change your life for sure. Yes, love is in the air, and it is God. We experience love and are able to truly love others, in direct proportion to our relationship with God.
