Have you ever wondered why people have different meanings in defining the word “love”?
Most of our basis in defining love are through experiences and lessons learned from our lives, but even after years of research and thousands of people defining love to fit their own definition, it then seems vague how every person’s truth is different from the next.
What is love and where did it come from?
The Origin
We go back to the very beginning of the world, at the creation of the world through God’s words (Genesis 1). As we read through Genesis 2, we learned that we are created after God’s own image and decided to entrust us with the leadership over all living things (Genesis 1:26). From dust, mankind was breathed life from God’s very own nostrils.
The first commandment was now made when the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
We all know how the story goes, Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit and her eyes was opened. She also gave some to her husband, Adam, and he also ate it. Question is: Why did they chose to disobey if the garden of Eve was everything they could ever ask for, and more?
- They doubted. Eve was enticed by the serpent of the lie that she will be like God also. The serpent started questioning in the form of this: “Will you really die?”
- Trying to be like God. Humans had a complementary and peaceful relationship with God, and it is also clear that they have their free will intact. So why disobey? It’s simple. They want to be the god of their own selves.
- The promise of knowledge. I pretty much know that having knowledge is good, but it sounds good to claim to know everything like how God does. This is when we realize that the creation craves to be like the Creator, and it doesn’t just end there… we want to be God.
Where will we find love in the passage of the first chapters in Genesis?
Most of the time, when we read the verse explaining God’s commandment not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we fail to see the love and protection of God. Protection rather than restriction. Why? “…for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Obviously speaking, God meant more than physical death, He also meant spiritual death. The sin we committed created a barrier of God’s perfect and harmonic love for us.
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Rizia B. Paragas is the Publications Team Leader of True Love Waits Philippines. She is a mental health advocate that loves singing, reading and writing. Her ideal rest day is appreciating God’s masterpiece through taking care of her plants, hiking and swimming on deep ocean waters.
