So
we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love
(1 John 4:16).
Pop music – those who make it, and those who consume it – must know something about love, right?
After all, Billboard magazine estimates that 10%
of the Hot 100 hits of all-time contain the word love – right in the title!
Again according to Billboard, the top love song of all time continues to be "Endless Love" by Diana Ross & Lionel Richie and written by Richie.
Are we to infer they knew more about love back then??? That love song sat at #1 on the charts for 9 weeks all the way back in 1981.
Love, its ups and downs and breakups and makeups, has dominated pop music – and novels, and movies, and sitcoms, and mythology, and history – probably forever.
So you’d think by now we’d have a pretty good understanding of what love is, how to make it work in our marriages and families; between neighbors and nations.
Is love like the wind? We can see the effects of
love, but cannot explain exactly what it is?
What causes love? What is its core?
And what of its source? From what wonderful spring does
love originate?
Is it instigated by biological or psychological forces?
Is it an inexplicable cultural phenomenon?
But, love is a frustratingly difficult term to
precisely define. We know it when we see it, but what is its essence?
Even if we cannot define it, we
know love involves emotions and behaviours characterized by attraction and intimacy,
protectiveness and passion.
In his epistle, the Apostle John’s assertion is that not only is God loving, but God is love. Unlike any other person
who loves you, He is the source and the personification of all
love.
And because humans are created in His image, we love.
Even though John is thought of as the Apostle of Love, the most insightful written description of love – and the text read, and re-read, and memorized more than any other in human history – comes from the pen of the Apostle Paul.
This text calls us to a fundamentally, qualitatively
different love than what is seen in contemporary movies or heard in pop music.
Although often read at weddings, it’s not restricted to marital love; at the heart of the text, love is described 7 ways positively – what it is; and 9 ways negatively – what it emphatically is not:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
In 1 John, the Apostle uses some form
of the Greek word agape over 35 times in 5 chapters.
Agape is the love of commitment; it is
covenantal, unconditional and sacrificial.
Agape is the costly, self-sacrificing and protective love of the Lord Jesus for His people – at the Cross and forever after.
Takeaway: As we grow to be more like Christ,
His agape love must of necessity be reflected in our lives,
marriages, families, and in our church.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is
love (1 John 4:8).
In his gospel narrative, John recorded
the provocative words of Christ:
By this
all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another (John 13:35).
May those
of us who identify as Christ-followers be always committed to honour the Lord
Jesus, by reflecting His agape love into our dark and broken world.
~ graphic
from pixy.org
