Love Redefined

In our culture of tolerance and acceptance, I think people have a complete misconception of what love really is.  I think we’ve incorrectly defined what the Bible means when it says that “God is love”.  This wrong definition of love has pervaded our culture and is affecting our society’s views of God, love, and how we are to treat others. 

In modern America, we hate absolutes.  We hate the idea of something or someone telling us we’re wrong.  To tell someone they are wrong labels you as being close-minded and a bigot.  People get very upset and angry when confronted with the absolutes of the Bible.  Don’t believe me?  Mention that homosexuality is a sin.  Point out that abortion is murder.  Tell a scientist that evolution is illogical. Declare that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to Heaven, and that if you don’t repent and follow Him, you’ll go to hell for eternity.  Listen to people’s reactions when confronted with such claims.  Even pastors now are making heretical claims about the Bible in order to appease our society’s hatred for “right and wrong”.  When absolute truth requires us to change, we don’t like it.

2 Tim. 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers”.  To summarize this scripture, it is saying that people don’t like truth so they find “teachers” who will tell them what they want to hear.  People will find sources who say homosexuality is normal, abortion is a choice, hell isn’t real and all paths lead to God.  The list could go on, but the bottom line is that people will look for ways to justify sin and hate to be told that some things are just flat out wrong.

Let’s look at the two greatest commandments and how our culture has redefined what they mean.  Jesus said in Mark 12:28-31, “Which is the first commandment of all?” 29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”   No one has a problem with the idea that we are to love our neighbors.  Many would agree that to love others is a good thing and we should all do that.  But, we miss the greatest command to love God. 

1)      What does it mean to love God?  1 John 5:3- “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”   This verse says to love God is to keep His commandments.  The Bible is full of things we are to do and things we are not to do. In Acts 17:30, something we are all commanded to do is repent.  Repent means to change the way you think, which will produce a change in the way you act.  We are commanded to change the way we think about life, sin, God, etc, and to believe what God tells us to believe.  What Christians are told to believe is clearly defined in the Bible.  To ignore the Bible as God’s words and commands is to ignore God.  In Romans 3, it says “let God be true and every man a liar”.  If someone says, thinks, or acts in a way that is not Biblical, they are a liar.  True repentance is when a person believes that God and His Word are right and anyone who disagrees with the Bible, disagrees with God Himself, and is wrong.

2)      So what about this second commandment to love people?  Many would say that it’s not love to tell people they are wrong and their sin will deliver an eternity separated from God.  I want to challenge this idea with a simple analogy.  As a parent, is it unloving to tell your child not to touch a hot stove?  Is it unloving, to tell them not to play in traffic?  Is it unloving, to tell them not to play with a loaded gun?  I would say that a parent who fails do those things doesn’t love their child.  If you love your child, you care about their well-being.  As a loving parent, you will warn them about things that are dangerous and could hurt them or get them killed.  In the same way, if a person is living in sin and is not a Christian, to warn them about God’s righteous judgment is LOVE.  I’m not suggesting that you angrily scream about hell while calling everyone terrible sinners all day long.  We should honor people by “speaking the truth in love”, as the Bible instructs.  The act of sharing the Gospel with people and explaining God’s justice and love is the most loving thing anyone could ever do!  Preaching the Gospel to an unsaved person is as heroic as stepping in front of a bullet that would have certainly killed them.  Because their sin will kill them.

Obviously, we all fall short of perfection, but we should strive to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.  This means loving people enough to stand for the absolute truths in God’s Word. Are you really loving God and loving people? We should be trumpets that declare His goodness and salvation! I encourage you to take a few moments and prayerfully consider what true love looks like.  Let’s examine our hearts and change the parts that don’t resemble the heart of God.