Have you heard the hit song by Tina Turner, What’s love got to do with it? You may not be old enough, but it was the Song of the Year in 1984 and won 3 Grammy Awards. She recorded the song when she was 44 and it reflected the feelings of many in her generation who had been burned by love. You may be thinking that she is right - “love is just a secondhand emotion” and “who needs a heart when a heart can be broken.” But we all know that love is so much more than just biological urges. Love is multidimensional and multifaceted. The Apostle Paul even prayed that we might have the …
… strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:18–19 (ESV). The Message translation says …
… I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights!
Love is something that we cannot even begin to know … apart from the one whose very substance, essence and being is love. Love begins and ends with God. He has shown us His love in both words and deeds. His love permeates life and all creation. As the Psalm 119:64 says …
The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love … Psalm 119:64
What’s love got to do with it? Everything! Without God, love is about what I need to do for others to love me. It is love to be loved. But with God, love is about what God has done for me without me doing anything. He loved me before I ever even thought of loving Him. I love this quote by Dr. David Jeremiah …
You know, a lot of people think that God begins to love them when they begin to love God, and that's not true. The Bible says he loved us before we were ever born. He loved us before the world was ever born. And his love is unconditional, his love is eternal. The interesting thing about knowing God is to realize that God has always loved us, and it's just the most wonderful thing when we discover that because then we can start loving Him back.
During Sunday’s message, we asked an important question … “What does love require of me?” You see, once you know and receive true, unconditional love, it changes you and how you love. The Apostle John wrote one the best over chapters about love, apart from 1 Corinthians 13 …
Beloved, let us love one another, 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. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7–12
And what does that perfected love look like? John goes on to tell us … (parenthesis mine)
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, … There is no fear (of judgement) in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:16–21
It all comes down to love … all we need is love … but then, that is another song.
– Pastor Jerry