Bulletin Articles
Love - What's It All About
Church of Christ-Rockville
4221 Suisun Valley Road, Fairfield, CA 94534
“Love – What’s It All About”
Dee Bowman – c/o Folsom church of Christ, Folsom, CA
Love is one of those words that has been bandied about until it has lost some of its luster. It deserves no such relegation. It is a powerful and expressive term. It should occupy a prominent place in everyone’s vocabulary, but everyone who uses it should be aware of its meaning and significance.
We “love” everything. We love the Holidays. We love someone’s new car. We love movies or the theater. We love a certain kind of pie or cake. Or maybe we love baseball. We even use the word for no score in tennis. Love is used for sexual passion, for an ineffable feeling of kindness toward someone, for a dedication to something (a “love for money”), and just a host of other things.
Bible love is actually divided into four different categories: 1) it sometimes refers to erotic love, the love between the sexes; 2) it sometimes refers to a sort of kinship to all mankind, brotherly love; 3) it sometimes refers to familial love; 4) but the highest and most profound love is agape the kind of love that seeks the best interests of the object of the affection. That kind of love is fundamentally intellectual and highly functional. It seeks no reciprocity and is not conditional.
In their commentary on Thessalonians, Hogg and Vine write: “Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered. Love seeks the welfare of all, Rom. 1:2, and works no ill to any, Rom. 13:9-10; love seeks opportunity to do good to ‘all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith,’ Galatians.6:10.” (Vine, pl. 703)
Love “covers a multitude of sins,” we are told. That’s a powerful statement. It is the love of God brings about our forgiveness (John 3:16), and in that sense we are covered by His love. But there’s another sense to that: we tolerate one another’s weaknesses and are patient with one another’s idiosyncrasies as well if we love as we ought. Furthermore, if someone sins against us, we patiently wait for him to find forgiveness. In fact, Peter says, “And above all things have fervent charity (this is a form of agape ) among yourselves: for charity (still agape ) shall cover the multitude of sins” (1Peter 4).
John says, “God is love.” Hear him: “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. (1 John 4:17). Love is the essence of God’s nature. It’s not just that God loves, but that God is love. If there is love, it came from Him. He is love. And Jesus was the personification of that love.
He states further that “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1John 4:12). Love is the ultimate motive, the supreme energy, the brilliant dynamic. By it we show our concern for one another and in doing so, show our love for God. And, again, it’s not just a sentimental expression of some ineffable feeling, but a willingness to be involved, to hurt if necessary, to manifest that love. “My little children let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth,” he says (1John 3:18). Love doesn’t just say it, it, it gets involved and shows it.
And love and truth are inextricably melded together. One is not good without the other. There is no love that is not truth and there is no truth that doesn’t involve love. For that reason, John says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1John 5:3). A person who doesn’t keep His commandments just doesn’t love Him, it’s as simple as that.
Love and fear are antithetical as well. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18) Fear is a kind of agitation that comes when some danger seems present. When one is part of God’s family, no danger can come that He cannot handle and there is therefore no reason for His children to fear. Even death itself is, for the Christian, merely a transport to the better place and so the bondage of the fear of it is cast out by love (cf. Heb. 2:14-15).
The subject of love is inexhaustible because it is such a vital part of who and what we are. Love and man belong together. But we need to be careful that we don’t love the wrong things (1 John 2:15-17). Maybe these little points will help us all to remember what is really important in our lives in the coming week. Remember the greatest commandment of all (Matt. 22:37-40), “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Brethren, let us love one another; for love is of God. Thanks for listening.
