Love

What is love? That question has led many down the path of flawed theology and misinformation. As followers of Christ, we struggle with the concept of what love is and what it does. The Apostle John gives us the correct definition of love. He says in his second Epistle, verses 5-6, “Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.” As you read the letter from John, you will quickly realize that he writes about love a lot. I suppose that is one of the reasons that his writings are among my favorites. John, through the unction of the Holy Spirit, helps us wade through the confusion of what love is and what love is not. Love was never meant to be some kind of uncontrolled emotion, but a willful choice.

Part of the problem we have is that in the English language, we only have one word for love, and so love can encompass how we feel about a spouse or ice cream. But the Greek language has several words for love to help differentiate our love of a spouse, a love of a friend, a love of food, but especially that God-given love known as “Agape” love. This is the kind of love John focuses on, as we should. The command that we are to love one another as Christ loves us. John tells us that we are to walk in “Agape.” That is not what we do, but it is who we are. Why should we surrender to such love? Because the Holy Spirit tells us in I John 4, “We love because He first loved us.” The harsh reality is that when we choose not to love as Christ loves us, then we are being disobedient, and we are in sin. This is a great challenge, but one that we can accomplish because of Christ in us.

This love is what should make the church beautiful and attractive to the outside world, because they have not experienced such love, nor can they understand it. It is this kind of love that changed the world in the beginning, and I still believe that this love can change our world even today.  My prayer is that “The Church” will love one another in such a way that we can no longer be marginalized, but once again become a force that will turn the world upside down.