February is the month of St Valentine, when the word love is used in a particular way. English is an impoverished language compared with some, especially the language (Greek) in which the New Testament was written. Here there are four separate ideas, all of which get to be translated as 'love' in English. If you want to pursue research here, a good place to start is 'The Four Loves' by C. S. Lewis.

Even the word 'testament', as in 'new testament', is an archaic word we are stuck with, and it would be better to refer to the 'new covenant'. The old covenant was the one God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the legal side of it was enshrined in the Law of Moses, especially the ten commandments.

But God had promised His people a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

"The time is coming," declares the Lord ,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,"
declares the Lord .
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord .
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbour,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord ,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the Lord .
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

The old covenant had hundreds of laws, with major moral principles, instructions on worship, and details about diet and clothing and a whole lot else to regulate communal life in an initially nomadic society. The new covenant would be quite different. People would know what God wanted from within.

The old covenant had priests who would be intermediaries between the people and God. The new covenant would need no intermediaries, because every one would have direct access to God.

The old covenant had sacrifices for sin repeated over and over again. The new covenant would deal with sin completely, so that no more sacrifices would be needed.

Jesus declared at the Last Supper that His death was inaugurating the new covenant. He also gave them a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. When asked by the legal experts of the day what was the greatest commandment He answered: Love God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbour as yourself.

So the new covenant is a break with the legalism of the old. The good news is that Jesus Christ has died for my sin, and now lives within me through the Holy Spirit to transform my character, and fill me with love. Love is the only thing that matters. The new covenant specifies no special ceremonies, no special places, no special diet, no special clothing, and as for priests, we Christians are all priests now, bringing God to those who do not yet know Him. But all through love. Whatever is done without love is worthless.

Paul knew this and wrote as follows about love (1 Corinthians 13).

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

There is no better definition of love than that given by Paul here:

This is why, when Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit, his list begins with love: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). All these are the fruit (the natural by-product) of the Holy Spirit dwelling in some one who has given their heart to God through Jesus.

This is God's agenda for each one of us. Each of us, in very different ways of course, through God's Holy Spirit, is having our character moulded to become full of these qualities. At the beginning of each day we hardly need to ask 'what, with God's help, shall I do?'. It is enough to ask 'what, with God's help, shall I be?'