Archive for March 11th, 2010
All You Need Is Love
I am guessing that most people, 5 years of age and older, have probably heard and can recite most or many of the words of the 1967 classic Beatles song, “All You Need Is Love.” I appreciate the song similar to billions of others worldwide, but The Beatles only had part of the equation correct. They understood the importance of the line “All you need is love, love is all you need”, but the grabber of my mind is they never define “love” in the song.
Our world, filled with death and destruction, high rates of divorce, poverty, hatred, discrimination, slavery, and many other less than desirable circumstances, desperately needs a vaccine of love. But many people are perplexed as to what love is. Certainly, we need to spread love in our world in a way which reaches every nook and cranny of society. But, upon our examination, what are the characteristics of authentic love and how can it be most readily defined?
Think about all of the weddings you have attended in your life for a moment; how many of them included the words from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in the ceremony? Here is God’s wonderful description of love from His word in the ESV translation, “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.” This passage in the Bible represents what many consider the perfect description of love? During the wedding ceremony, we all desire to understand and characterize what love is, in order to equate how the couple will live their life together, “till death do us part.”
But this love we so readily desire comes from God, as we read in 1 John 4:7-8, which states, “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.” Yes, it is important we realize that the beautiful love described in 1 Corinthians comes from God. If we abide in this life in a way where we put God first in all things, allowing His Holy Spirit to indwell us in a way which radiates love to a world crying out for love, then we, in turn, will realize a peace which comes only from our Heavenly Father, a peace which will transcend all other aspects in our lives, contributing to our willingness to care for others more than ourselves. If we share the kind of love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians, then we should comprehend love, and others we be on the receiving end of our love, which we receive from God, the creator, and when we do that, we can satisfyingly state, “All you need is love.” A better world awaits our ability to love, so purposefully act in a way that portrays the love described in God’s word.
Go and bless someone’s life today by authentically loving them.
Daryl Dho
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