Real Love Has Christian Roots And Without Them It Is Doomed

Love for God. Love for Jesus. Love for other Christians. Love for your neighbour. Love for the immigrants. Love even for your enemies. And yes, love for yourself for Jesus says we are to love others “as you love yourself “ (Matthew 19:19)

Love is at the very core of the Christian message which is summarised in the most famous verse in the Bible:

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NLT)

We know that God loves us because Jesus died for us and rose again for us. And if he loved us in this way won’t he continue to love us and provide for us both now and for eternity?

And if Jesus loves us then we ought to love others in honour of his sacrifice for us. We love others as one of the main ways we follow Jesus’ example.

Love includes forgiveness even when reconciliation may not be wise or safe. Love includes being more aware of our own sin than we are of others

We love others because Jesus commanded us to. We love others because they have inherent value as made in the image of God. We do not rate others importance based on what they can do for us. They are valuable because they carry the divine gift inside them like treasure inside earthen jars.

We don’t stop loving others just because they are sick or disabled and unable to do things. We are human beings not human doings. As a result we should not invite them to let us kill them via assisted suicide.

Love is being compassionate towards those who are suffering or are more unfortunate than ourselves. There should be no place among Christians for the angry anti disabled and anti immigrant rhetoric that is all too common in our political discourse right now. Those “loony lefties” or those “crazy right wingers” are not to be the target of our hate but of our love.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31–32, NLT)

We love others because we hope that our love for them will draw them to Christ. We demonstrate forgiveness and mercy in the hope that they will turn to Jesus

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? (Romans 2:4, NLT)

We now live in a culture that wants to reject Christianity. How can real love survive the way our civilised society is devolving towards selfishness, victimhood, and entitlement. We are sawing off the very branch we are sitting on, which grew from the Christian tree.

We live in a culture that prides itself on promoting meaninglessness. Is it any wonder that some leading Atheists are now calling themselves cultural Christians and urging us not to reject the fruit of hundreds of years of Christian values being infused into our way of life.

Modern Dictionaries define love simply as “an intense feeling of deep affection” – which surprised me more than it perhaps should. The Christian worldview defines love very differently:

Love is when you care for someone and are kind to them.

The dictionary definition of love is just plain wrong. Love is not an emotion on the level of happiness, sadness, anger, disappointment, etc.

Love is not a feeling. It’s a decision.
Love is a DOING word. It requires choices. Hard choices, sometimes. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about faithfulness. It requires commitment. It sometimes hurts and doesn’t feel so good.

As Daniel Bedingfield said in a song, “Nothing hurts like love, nothing causes your heart so much pain.”

But that pain is worthwhile for without love we will be alone and purposeless, the very complaint of so many today.