What's Love Got to Do With It

What does the Bible teach about love? There are many things I could say in answer to that question but let me suggest a few things.

First, God is love. That isn’t all that He is, but He is always that.

Second, love is the essence of what God requires. Jesus said the greatest commandment is that we love God and the second is that we love our neighbor. He also said,

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you always are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’” (John 13:34-35)

Third, the order of the first two isn’t arbitrary. God is love and we are to love, but remember this, “We love because He first loved us.”

God is love, we are to love God and love our neighbor and even our enemy, and we can only love God, our neighbor and our enemy because God first loved us. And to top it all off, Jesus said, “By this,” by love, “all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John has much to say about love in his letter we know of as 1 John. We are not to love the world, but we are to love God, our brothers and sisters for “love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Tina Turner sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” The answer is everything! I sometimes wonder if the Church understands this. Do we see the importance of not only loving God, but loving our brothers and sisters? Do we see the importance of showing love even to those with whom we disagree.

It breaks my heart that some who claim Jesus as Lord make excuses about loving someone who votes differently, looks different, or believes differently. Love does not demand that we forget theology, forget truth, and just sing “Kumbaya”, but it does demand that we treat each other with decency, that we can agree to disagree on some things, and that we can look out for the good of one another’s soul.

I found what I would have thought to be an unlikely understanding of love from a Muslim Poet named Rumi, but the more I read him the more I realize he has a better understanding of love than many who claim to be followers of Jesus. That isn’t an endorsement of Sufi Mysticism…it is an inditement on the Church! He said,

“Unless Love dyes you in its colors,

you’re driftwood in God’s eye.

You’re stone.”