We think we know what love is. As the Beatles have said "All you need is love". Really, is that all you need? I will agree that there are different types/levels of love. 'I love tacos' and 'I love my wife' are obviously different types of love. So is love all you need? That kinda depends on how we define love huh? In our society we tend to do whatever we want with whoever we want whenever we want for as long as want without considering the consequences of it, all in the name of love. Think with me through this. Basically we are saying that 'We' are the ones who decide what love is. Who are we to decide that? This all stems from our resistance to submit to authority. At first you may think, that has nothing to do with it, but it actually has a lot to do with it. You see, when we choose to be our own authority, we get to decide what is good, what is bad, and yes, what is love.
It's interesting to hear homosexual couples talk about how much they 'love' each other. It's easy to talk about 'love' when you redefine what love means. You have a couple who have proven Romans 1:26-27 true, the reason why they have done this: because they love each other. They turned from God, true love, and turned to their own sex:
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Please take note that I think people who practice homosexual behavior are not any worse than those who do not. I do think that on the outside it is more apparent though, and the consequences are easily seen, while the sin of others are more hidden.
You have a husband or wife who cheats on his spouse, and runs off abandoning his family. What is the reason they give: "I love him/her". Or, "I fell out of love with him/her". Is love that fickle?
There are many parents who will not physically discipline a child because why: they "love" them too much. I think we should be really careful on how we discipline a child and many times we let our anger guide the discipline not our love, but my point is that if you don't discipline a child, you don't love them. Thankfully God disciplines his children, see Hebrews 12:5-11. The difference is that his discipline is perfect while ours is tainted with sin. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't discipline them, only that we should understand our sin nature as well as our propensity to sin as we seek to discipline those God has entrusted to us.
Here's what I believe: Love has become the idol.
We should stop defining love according to our wants and wishes and look to God for how He defines love. Like we've done with so many things in this world, we have taken something that is good "love" and turned it on its head. The sad part is that we think we are really benefiting from it when in reality we are feeding on crumbs when there's a feast to be eaten. Pretty sad...
This is how the Bible defines love in 1 John 4:9-10
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Everything else flows from our understanding of this.
I want to ask the question for you to think on and possibly reply if you feel led to: What do you think love is? How did you arrive at that definition? How many things have you done in the past or currently do that include you using "love" for justification? I know I've done my share.
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