Love!!! Well, it is February, and we celebrate love this month. Funny, there is much irony in our use of this little four-letter word. I love chocolate! I love seafood! I love you! However, in its truest form the word love is deep and oh so powerful. We love our pastor, as long as he is doing what benefits us. We love our neighbor, as long as they live in the right social strata. Conditional love is so much a part of our human nature. I love my spouse, as long as he or she meets me in my place of need, otherwise, I throw a childish tantrum and ignore them or gaslight them to my peers.
Christ taught that we were to love God and love our neighbors just as we love ourselves. He said that everything from Genesis to Maps hinged on this command. Pretty dang important, I’d say. However, we must understand that His love, as defined in I Corinthians 13 was explicit in our personal responsibility. Not only is His love founded on the fact that He is love; not that He possesses love, but He is the very essence of and source from which true love flows. This command came from the same Christ who fashioned a whip, overturned tables, and ran people out of the temple!!! What!!!??? That doesn’t sound like love by our definition! Sadly, many of us were raised being taught that Jesus is some real-good, feel-good Savior who just loves everyone, and in the end we all stand hand-in-hand and sing Kumbaya as we stroll into Heaven. . . pardon my authentic Southern grammar, but “Ain’t ever’body goin’ to Heaven!” Jesus was honest in His love. His love bears a standard. Oh, all are welcome, but not on their own terms. Christ’s love is transforming! We cannot love by the world’s standard if He is our Lord.
Regardless of the person Christ encountered, He always called them out of darkness and into light To quote repeated words from Christ, “Go and sin no more” was His mantra to all whom he rescued from broken places. You see, my friend, love is a verb. Love is not a noun! Love requires action. If I say that I love my wife, yet I treat her miserably or abusively, I am a liar! My words are hollow. There is no truth in my words. If I follow what Christ called His greatest command, then loving God, means my actions, my life demonstrates that the love of which I speak is true. If I genuinely love my neighbor as myself, then, just as I must be honest with myself when I KNOW FOR A FACT that I am choosing a lesser standard than God has set, I too must love my neighbor enough to guide them back to truth in Him if I see them wandering off on a worldly tangent. So, friends, speak carefully when you use this word LOVE. There is an expectation, one with eternal consequence, when we use this word, a word which was never intended to be taken lightly.
