Solomon has said that God has placed eternity in our hearts.  It was portioned out to each as God breathed into the nostrils of the man.  It has continued in an unbroken chain to this day.  This has so much to do with foundational truths pertaining to the image of God in man and it would be wrong to assume that God's greatest qualities would be overlooked in this spiritual transaction, of a sorts.  This is why the human spirit is very much prone to understanding justice and law but the nature of sin that inhabits each of us requires these laws so that the sin might become exceedingly sinful, as the Bible teaches.

Love is most certainly one of God's traits that He would not have overlooked when He imparted His portion to us, but like justice, is has been skewed by our idolatries.  So in order to help us better understand what it means to show love, and that we cannot fully express it without Christ because it was manifested first through Him, we can look deeply into ourselves and see remnants of God's image in us.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:12, "Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets."  If we stop and think for a moment, we can see how a knowledge and concept of love has been placed into our hearts.  We only have to think of how we would like to be treated. 

We need and enjoy the patience of others; the kindness of others towards us is always appreciated; we do not like it when others envy us to the point of making us feel as if we are "better-than-thou"; we do not enjoy certain individuals who boast as if all else was nothing; we do not like when conceited individuals make all else feel "not so beautiful"; we do not like individuals to act improperly towards us with motives for their own good; we do not like selfish people who take things in spite of another's need or desire; we do not like it when certain individuals are provoked by us so easily when we only spoke simply and nicely; we do not like listers-of-our-sins who speak of them at the most opportune time; we do not like it when people enjoy sins that are worse than ours; we want people to be honest with us, help us, believe in us, hope in us, and stick with us.

We only had to look at the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 and see how these things make us feel when they are done unto us.  It is much easier and desirable to look at others when they fall short of love but then we are overlooking our own sins, conveniently.  The message of the Word of God is not intended to be used as a whip to bring others into line.  The Holy Spirit will work through each heart individually. He will expose truth to that person so that they may learn the ways of love.

Entering into love requires that we first know what it is.  If we use the truth wisely then we will apply it to our own heart.  When we do, the qualities of the love of God will be made known in us and we will not be concerned whether this one or that one loves.  We will only show love and treat others the way that we like to be treated.