Over the past several months, I’ve reposted a series of excerpts from Pure Love: A 90-Day Devotional of Living God’s Love Out Loud. As I was writing the devotional several years ago, I was struck by the depth and breadth of love, the variety of what it entails. It’s so much richer and complicated than just one post can capture. I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, God is love. And as consistent as God is, he is certainly diverse.

Someone recently sent me a text that claimed, “Love is as love does.”

Agreed.

Sort of.

It depends on how we define love, what we want from love, and how we perceive someone’s expression of love.

Love is a tension between grace and truth. It doesn’t always feel comfortable. It certainly isn’t easy much of the time. It challenges us, because love requires us to step into honesty and humility and a willingness to change.

But without authentic love, we live immaturely. We must be willing to live in the tension of  both grace and truth. Love is both. Not either/or.