by: Russell McLaughlin

How Do You Spell Love?

            One Saturday afternoon while a father was working in the front yard, his four-year-old daughter came to the back door and shouted, “Daddy, how do you spell love?”  He gave her the four letters, which with her newly found skill of printing she placed on a drawing she later proudly presented to those she loved.

             Love is more than a matter of putting four letters of the alphabet together in correct sequence.  We spell it as we express it and live it in the way we fulfill our personal relationships.  In that way, love may be the most misspelled word in the vocabulary of our lives.

            Christian love in the Bible, (Greek “agape”), means to seek the highest good of another.  It’s a gift of love.  It’s an unconditional love.  It’s a love that goes on loving even when the other becomes unlovable. It’s a love that serves others. It’s a Christ like love. In John 13:1, we read, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (NKJV) He then washed the disciple’s feet, seeking their highest good. Then he went to the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, seeking our highest good.

            In John 13: 34-35 Jesus says, “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NKJV) He calls us to a new standard of love, His love. Let’s all spell love the way Bible teaches us to, seeking the highest good of others!