Lifted Vision Ministry

Welcome back to Part III of the series we have been taking a look at together: The Difference Between Liking and Loving! In this last part of our series, we will discover the final difference between the acts of liking and truly loving! Let’s dive right in!

-Colossians 3:14 NIV-
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

From this part of the Bible, we can see that love is shown to be an actual binding force– differentiating it very much from liking. Love is a binding force which brings God towards people and in turn, humans towards one another in what the Bible calls, “perfect unity.” This unity is expressed through an intimate closeness between God the Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit and man. Love is the foundational element that brings people close together and gives them a “perfectness” in relationships (or as close to perfectness as humanly achievable). If you ever wanted to improve any relationship in your life, then, the main ingredient necessary to be included is real love. What is this love then?
The Greek word used for love in this scripture is agape– a special type of love created by God that involves commitment, faithfulness and the conscious act of the will upon it. There is a willful delight deep inside the person practicing love towards the object that is loved; a genuine bliss that is pure and true in heart. Do we have that? If not, that is something we sincerely need to pray for.
“Liking” on the other hand, does not denote the same type of devotion, duty and dedication that real love has. Liking is characterized rather in contrast, by a loftiness, and an absence of strong moral character. According to American psychologist Dr. Robert Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, with liking, there is a form of emotional intimacy, however, there is no commitment.
Therefore, does liking anything really have a strong or serious element to it at all? Hardly. Liking is a form of fondness and nothing more. How then, should we categorize our relationships towards God and others now having this information? Will we continue to loosely “like” things, people and God and go on in life with an absence of true love? Or, will we take a stand, take a position, take a responsibility, and truly love the way that God has intended for us to?
I usher you friends and family in the faith, we have not only a moral responsibility, but a Biblical responsibility to love both God and others. As I mentioned in Part I of this series, the greatest commandment and law of all is to love the Lord our God with everything we’ve got. And then? Loving others with the same sincerity with which we ourselves also desire to be loved with.

There is so much more to say, but I’ll end it here for now everyone – Thank you so very much for reading Part III of our series today! You made it! If you enjoyed this study, please go back and check out Parts I and II if you missed them too! God bless you and let’s be a people known by our true love!

-John 13:35 NIV-
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”