Ultimate Solution: The “Is” of Love
In this final edition (read the previous edition), I seek to uncover the essence of love (being qua being), its true meaning in and of itself, beyond contradiction or mere appearances. This inquiry also aims to identify the originative principle behind love, its foundational source and defining core.
Many people cite 1 Corinthians 13:4–7, where Paul describes love as “patient, kind… not proud… not self-seeking… always persevering…” as a definition of love. However, a closer reading reveals that Paul is not defining what love is, but rather offering a list of its attributes, illustrations, or manifestations of love in action. These are examples of the “are” of love. But what we seek here is the “is” of love—its essence.
This distinction is not unlike what Socrates pursued in Plato’s Meno, where he challenges Meno to move beyond examples of virtue to a single, unified definition—a concept common to all virtues. Adopting this Socratic method, I examined the Pauline list and found one constant thread running through every attribute: sacrifice.
Sacrifice, I propose, is not merely an attribute of love; it is its essence. Sacrifice is love’s metaphysical core, its ultimate reality. In Kantian terms, it is the noumenon of love—what love is in itself, not merely how it appears. Just as Thales looked upon the natural world and identified water as the originative substance of all things, I look upon the expressions of love in Scripture and identify sacrifice as the originative principle of love.
This idea is echoed powerfully in Scripture: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
— John 15:12-13 “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8
In both cases, love is not described in soft sentimentality or fleeting emotion. It is anchored in self-giving, in the willing laying down of oneself for the good of the other. That is the ultimate proof and essence of love. Not patience alone, not kindness alone, but the willingness to give, to endure, to surrender, which is sacrifice.
