JUST THINKING: What's Love Got to Do With It?

      Since today is the day for love letters, gifts and other means of showing affection, I was just thinking about the subject of love. Tina Turner, the grandmother of rock, sang, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” I would answer that by simply saying, “Everything!”

The Very Nature of God    

         The truth is, apart from God, none of us really know what love is, and we certainly don’t know what love has to do with anything. Yes, we know of the romantic, erotic kind of love, but that is way too often fleeting.

      John wrote, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus” (I John 4:16-17 NIV). Those first three words are emphatic. God doesn’t merely show love — He islove! As His children, believers ought to take on the nature of God in our daily lives and interactions with others.

A Poor Concept About a Great Demonstration           

         Tina Turner sang of only one kind of love, but God’s Word speaks of another. Her kind of love is short-lived; God’s love is everlasting. The lyrics of her song revealed a very poor concept — “What’s love but a second-hand emotion?” Another part of the song asks, “What’s love but an old-fashioned notion?”

      What can we draw from such a poor concept? We can readily see that few people know what real love is across the planet. Whether it is fourth graders exchanging Valentines, teenagers experiencing their first kisses or couples getting married based purely on physical attraction, there’s more to love than most can imagine.

Believers Ought to Love Like God Loves     

         Again, from John’s first letter: “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (I John 4:19-21 NIV).

      God’s Word is not just a roadmap on how to get to Heaven and escape the punishment of the Lake of Fire. It is a guidebook on how to live in this world among people who need to know the true love of God — unconditional love.

      Here is an important way regarding how to accomplish such — look past faults and meet needs. Every human sins, even believers. To love like God loves is to look at the people around us and put aside our judgmental spirits to meet those people’s needs. That is exactly what Jesus did when He was on the cross. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 NIV). We are not ever directed to die for others, but great love is demonstrated in doing so. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NIV). Love has everythingto do with it!