When I first started studying theology for ministry I had no idea what I would learn. A mentor of mine at the time said that going through college dried him out and nearly burnt him out and told me to be very weary of it all. His fear was that my fresh conversion zeal would be sapped away by constant study as was his.

My experience of study has been quite the opposite, although it's tiring getting all the assessment work completed and trying to balance work, study, ministry and life, I find that I am energized by the company of great minds who have thought deeply and inspire my own deep thoughts.

Study has made parts of Scripture come alive, have new meaning and deliver a depth of meaning that I would have never encountered simply sitting in a pew.

One of those times occurred while reading "Theology for the community of God" which introduced me to the theology of the Trinity, how it works, why it is important and the consequences of having a God who lives in community with Himself.

The textbook brought me back to the fundamental nature of God, God is love.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

John 4:7-21

When we say that God is love we sometimes seem like we are reading a bumper sticker, it's the right next to the "In case of rapture this car will be unmanned" sticker. But what we are conferring is the fundamental cause of the universe, God is love, and out of that love we came.

God is love.

God = love.

John in the passage above says it 6 ways from Sunday that when we love we are showing God to the world. When we speak of love we are speaking of God and the things of God.

In mathematics such as algebra you can substitute certain symbols to mean something else.

For example:

x = a + b

y = 5 * x

Therefore

y = 5 * (a + b)

Think this one through with me.

I'm seeking love = I'm seeking God.

I want to experience love = I want to experience God.

I want to know love = I want to know God.

When we seek love, we seek God.

For some of us this may re-invigorate our relationship with God because we know something about love and so we can start applying this to God. We can look at the hearts of our parents, or the love we have for our children and we get something of a glimpse of what this means with a relationship with our Heavenly Father.

For me it grows in me the desire to grow in holiness in my relationships. To love someone deeply means to impart something of the things of God into their lives. When I seek to serve the lost, the hopeless and the unloved in my community, the people who don't have a job, live on welfare, smell, when I minister to them to show them the things of God what I am really trying to do is show them love.

If I have not loved them then I have not shown them God.

I ran across this lovely little ditty recently, it's a utilitarian approach to a love poem.

You are aesthetically pleasing,
the reason for which I first noticed in you.
And later I found your personality equally pleasing.
I also noted your chest to waist ratio is suitable for birthing.
Therefore, I think you should live in my house.

I'm not pointing any fingers here but there seems to be a lot of that kind of love going around at the moment. You look nice, lets live together. It's a challenge for the emerging pastor to gently confront our culture (or when necessary tread lightly and carry a big stick).

I can never think of a better way to inspire people towards godliness than giving them the higher aspirations of God. Listen to what Paul says love is:

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Love is so much more than "Hey I like the look of you" and when we model it to others, it can become a higher ideal that we can all aspire too. It is the only way we can combat the photoshopped, vanilla, lust fueled and disposable version of love offered up to us.

That's the kind of love I want to have!