Love, Love, Love

Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. 1 John 4:7 CEV

Popular songs and movies are about finding love, losing love, unrequited love, spurned love. Advertisements from soft drinks to resort vacations are about love. Romance novels are complete fantasy. The reality-TV dating shows are staged, scripted, and ultimately unrealistic! (Never mind the Internet dating sites with misrepresentations and blatant lies.) The potential mates on TV's "The Bachelor" claim they're "in love," are unscrupulous and immoral, and don't seem to mind that their competitors' saliva is still on the tongue of their suitor. Blech!

Politicians of every party speak of love for country, but their actions often show disdain for their constituents, while fawning over their contributors.

I knew a pastor, at the time a bachelor, whose license plates on his red sports car read, “MY WIFE.” (I wonder what his plates changed to when he married.) Yet his subsequent marriage and adoption of a child shows his enduring commitment to love.

One person falls in and out of love as easily as changing a shirt, while another loyally and doggedly perseveres when it seems there’s no hope of returned affection.

For all the talk of love, is it love? What is love? It depends on who or what you’re talking about. Everyone wants fulfillment, happiness, appreciation, and a sense of belonging. On Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, those qualities are listed in the “love” category, about halfway up the ladder from physiological needs (bottom) to self actualization (top). The love that we strive to give and receive is at the top of the scale. The characteristics Maslow lists as self-actualized are mostly those of a fulfilled and godly human being, and we, with apologies to Dr. Maslow, might call them Christ-actualized!

The beloved disciple wrote in 1 John 4:7-11 CEV: My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

In word and deed.