Before you can understand anything about true love, you must realize that all true, genuine, love comes from God. The sad thing is that there are many definitions of love, and it is harder than ever to tell the difference between true love and the many things that are falsely called love.

It seems as if not only love but all the important words have been re-defined. Satan has redefined faith into something that is just plain silly. Satan has redefined hope into, "I hope so" or "high hopes" rather than the hope that comes from God. Love has also been re-defined into emotion, feelings, friendships, socialism, and many other things. Misconceptions like these can stand in the way when we want to understand and partake of God's love.

The many common misconceptions of the culture can keep us from entering into that deep, spiritual love, which affects our spiritual health. A 2009 Barna poll shows that 81% of self-identified Christians endorse the notion that spiritual health means "trying hard to follow the rules described in the Bible." This in spite of the fact that Paul told the Galatian church that, if they are trying to finish the work that God started by trying hard to follow the rules, then they are making the grace of God of no effect, Galatians 2:21. Self-generated "love," like the kind of "love" that is generated by trying really hard to follow a set of rules, just frustrates God's free gift of love. We may try to have both the supernatural love, agape love, that comes from God alone and also the kinds of love that we try to generate by self-effort. So, we can have self-generated love or we can supernatural love, but the two are not compatible. Only one is true and authentic.

All true, authentic, love comes from God. Counterfeit love, on the other hand, can be had without God.

The counterfeit love we hear most about is the kind of love that people "fall" into. This is infatuation. God created it, but the abundance of popular misunderstanding of this type of love is the cause of an awful lot of misery. A man and woman "fall in love." They experience what is basically an electro-chemical reaction, which lasts anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of years. The feeling is euphoric and temporary. For those who lack understanding, they say, "The feeling is gone." Then they move on to their next relationship--or marriage--in hopes that this new relationship will last. It will not. The feeling is temporary. Lasting "feelings of love" must be cultivated.

The second most promoted form of counterfeit love is the kind of love that says, "Smile on your brother. Everybody get together, and try to love one another right now," and "Put a little love in your heart." This is the self-generated--without God--type of love. Those who are deceived by this are proclaiming a commandment, which is the commandment that actually does come from God. The trouble is that they are trying to have love without the God who is love. They are trying to do what is impossible, have love without God. This form of love often turns into a kind of love that is used to promote politicians and entertainers so they can get more money and power. They want to be sincere, but they are being fooled by a deceptive lie.Even some churches are promoting this lie in the form of a social gospel and often a political gospel--a gospel with human-generated righteousness and human-generated love.