All We Need Is Love. Really?

What if you loved your neighbor the way you love yourself? Think about it. What if you treated your neighbor the way you treat yourself (talking to yourself in your head, the way you think about yourself, and how you see yourself in God). How much would they like you?

I have been reading and hearing people talk and write about love and how love is the answer as a Christian. The problem is that is not true. Love is not the answer, Christ is. Love is the outworking of what we have in Christ, because He loved us first. We cannot love properly on our own, as it is all self-diluted.

Love has been washed down in Western thought. When you read about it, it is always the same old cheesy examples used. Give to the poor, help the widow and down trodden. Those are great and good, but the easy form of love. A lot of people that write on this subject don’t seem to want to get to the deeper levels and the harder levels of love. Atheists, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and many other religions help the poor and down trodden. Just look at Haiti today as a great example. Not everyone donating is a Christian.

What if your mother, daughter, or sister was taken and brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, the LRA, or some strange occult. What would your love look like when you see them in court? Would you love your enemy? Would you walk up and say, “I forgive you and love you because of what Christ did for me?” Honestly, I cannot say that would be my response, or I would have that kind of love, because it is severely difficult and goes against every fiber of my being.

What about love that hurts? Jesus said that love for Him in comparison should be like hating your parents. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). What about Jesus’ violent act in the temple when He chased out the vendors from the temple? Matthew 21:12 says, “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.” How come He did not walk up and tell them how much He loved them, or did He do this by His violent act?

Seems to me to be much more to love then what we talk and write about much of the time. Probably because we don’t want to think about the harder side of love. The love that disciplines, or allows bad things to happen for God’s ultimate purpose. Or allows people the choice to sin and commit heinous acts of horror; like what happened in Rwanda.

Interestingly enough, we have seen more acts of love in places like Rwanda amongst Christians then we do in most places on earth. They repented as a nation and forgave those that stole their children and turned them into cold hearted killers, which ultimately led some of them to Christ. They could have killed them, or tortured them once caught, but they didn’t. Why? If I knew that my son was made to help bite his own brother to death by one of the LRA leaders, I would want revenge. Wouldn’t you? They did not because the love of Christ exuded through them. This is true love, when every inch of your sin nature wants to take revenge for yourself, to act in violence, and yet you love them. Yes, some did retaliate, and in some ways it is hard for me not to blame them, because I struggle with that kind of love, real love that makes us demonstrate it in non-violent actions against our very nature.

My point is love is not just some warm and fuzzy feeling. And Christ even talks about how non-believers demonstrate this kind of love. What sets Christian love apart is our love is bound in what Christ did for us. While we were yet sinners (enemies of God), He sent His Son to die for us (you and me), so that we may no longer be an enemy of God but His family. Loving your enemies takes on a whole new dimension when thought of in these terms.

Love is not easy. Jesus tells us the whole world is going to hate us, because it first hated Him. John 15:18 says, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.” If that is the case, then even our good acts are going to be seen as bad at times, right? Jesus lived a Holy Life and they killed Him for it. He loved like no other and it cost Him His life.

We tend to forget when Jesus was harsh on people when we talk about love. Love is also telling the truth when it needs to be said in the matter that it needs to be said, and sometimes that is not pleasant. Look at the names Jesus called Peter, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and His disciples throughout the Gospels. At times the love He showed was not easy to hear and not easy to take. He was also blunt at times, though softly, as with the woman at the well, but still a hard truth said in love.

We need to give people the whole picture of love when we write and talk. Yes, giving and helping the needy is a large part, but that actually falls a lot of the time in righteousness and justice. Take time to study those areas in context sometime, though those are aspects of love as well.

Love is giving your life away so that others may love. “To live is Christ to die is gain,” as said by the apostle Paul. Love cares about your enemies and their salvation. Love prays for blessings for those that we despise. Love is only capable through Jesus Christ.

How well are you doing?