What is Love?

Introduction

What is love? The two great commandments that we repeat every Sunday both are about love, so I ask again, what is love?

Aristotle said, “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” Erich Fromm, the German-American philosopher wrote, “Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” According to the poet Peter Ustinov, “Love is an endless act of forgiveness. A tender look which becomes a habit.”

Einstein said, “Love is a better teacher than duty.” Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet wrote, “Love is the bridge between you and everything.” And according to Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, “Love is sharing your popcorn.”

But Jesus said:

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

My point is not to contrast other definitions of ‘love’ with the words of Jesus, but rather to remind us that as Christians, love should always be self-sacrificial. To love God with all that you are should cost you something. Forgive me for being the bearer of bad news, but you are not perfect, and so there are parts of you, maybe even parts of what makes you you, that you will have to give up if you are going to love God with all that you are. Likewise, to love your neighbor as yourself should cost you something, like time, money, social standing, or even security.

We live in a world that talks a lot about love, but it’s almost always talk about the wrong kinds of love. And to be clear, by the wrong kinds of love, I do mean ‘love’ that do not fit a biblical definition, like saying that you love someone and then choosing your own self-interests above theirs.

I feel it necessary to remind Christians today that what makes a person worthy of your love is not the degree to which they already conform to your values and expectations. What makes them worthy of love is that God made them and loves them and calls you to love them too. And why not? Do you think you that you were worthy of God’s love? Do you think that you deserved the unfathomable riches of his love that he has lavished on you in Christ Jesus our Lord? If you think the answer is yes to either question, you’ve got a serious problem.

You don’t deserve God’s love, and yet:

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We are very good at loving those who love us first and loving those who are good to us. But Jesus said,

Luke 6:32–33 ESV

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

Do you remember what Jesus said after this? He talks about lending money, and then he says:

Luke 6:35–36 ESV

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Christian love is self-sacrificial, and it is merciful, and it is shown not when we love those who love us back but when we love those whom the world does not deem worthy of our love.

You see, I am unimpressed by positions, titles, degrees, power, money social standing, and whatever else if a self-professed Christians shows me to my face that they do not and unapologetically cannot love their neighbor as themselves.

Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Christians who are only able to love those who love them in return and cannot fathom loving the unlovable gain, Paul says, nothing.

I started the sermon by asking, “What is love?” The answer, of course, is just over my shoulder above the altar. On the wall it says, “God is love,” and this is one of the distinctive visuals of this church. Those three words are from 1 John 4:8, but do you know the rest of that verse?

1 John 4:8 ESV

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is love, and even when we were sinners and dead in our sins, he sent is Son to die for us, so that we might live in him. God is love, and we are called to love our neighbors with that same self-sacrificial, merciful love. And by our neighbors, I do not mean those that our country, community, or colleagues deem as lovable or “the right kind of people.” I mean especially the unlovable, especially the lost, especially the immigrant, especially those who cannot or will not love us back, and yes, especially our enemies.

So, as we stand on the precipice of Lent, I have a challenge for you. In Lent, we typically take something on and give something up, and I know that many of you are already taking on these new small groups as part of your Lenten discipline, and that’s great. But now let’s talk about what you’re going to give up. Chocolates, coffee, sweets, stuff like that, that’s fine. But if you want more love and less hate in your life, I have a suggestion, and it’s going to hurt.

If you want more love and less hate in your life, turn off cable news. There is nothing in this world that fosters hate, division, and anger like cable news, and I do mean all of them, so I am begging you for the sake of your soul to just give it up. And if you feel like you can’t, that probably tells you that you should.

To close, I’m going to read Paul’s words about love, and I want you to ask yourself if this seems like anything that you’ve seen on cable news in the past two decades.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Love never ends, but hatred and division can.

Amen.