The Beatles wrote a song that changed an entire generation. It’s name? “All we need is love.” The lyrics are simple and the melody is catchy. It says, “All we need is love, love. Love is all we need.” And for decades the rhetoric of “Love” has pierced the hearts of several generations and penetrated every sphere of society.

Love, love, love… Is all we need. Ok, so we need this thing called love, but what is love? Well, it’s love, you know… right? People truly enjoy throwing around the word “love” as long as it is never described or defined. The minute anyone tries to define it, we experience a witch burning or are told that love is personal experience and that no one has the right to define it for anyone else. Others might say that you just know when you know or that you just feel it.

I’m just gonna say it, LOVE IS NOT what the masses have “loosely” non-defined it as. Warm fuzzes, general affection, self-serving generosity, or sexual attraction are NOT LOVE.

Side note: love does not equal tolerance. To tolerate sin (what is wrong) is to allow a weed in the garden that in time will choke out the blossoms of love. Though it is seemingly beautiful, it is poison.

What is love? We have many illustrations throughout the bible about what love is.

Now, many will point to the first letter to the Corinthians and I will partly agree. The word translated as love throughout the passage is better translated charity (goodwill) or agape.

Agape is unconditional love that is guided, or governed by principle and may or may not include affection or fondness. So, when we are commanded to love our enemies, we are not asked to have affection or fondness for them we are asked to be patient, kind, not to envy, not to boast, not to be proud, not to dishonor them, not to be self-seeking, not to be easily angered, not to keep record of wrongs, not to delight in evil but rejoice with the truth, always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere and keep going. This is a tall order and nearly impossible without an inner resolve fueled by the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit. We love or choice goodwill because we know that the godhead is filled not only with goodwill love but is also filled with affection for us. God moved by his own nature of overflowing affection and goodwill gave, because love gives. He gave us access to the inner sanctum of “love.”

I have many “friends” that prescribe to the hippy, old age philosophy of “just love.” This love is the murky, watered down swill of the masses that will never compares to the pure unadulterated love of self-sacrifice, though seemingly crapped and restricted compared to the “free love” of the world. These boundaries are what give love it’s power. Like a river that flows from the mountains through valleys and then into the sea only to return to the mountain. So, is the love that flows from the heart of God and continues through imperfect humans only to return to God as the same substance. Unlike the free love that becomes stagnant and impure because of it’s looseness in restriction. Just ask any couple who have had an STD or STI infiltrate the holy confines of their marriage vows. This love is no longer pure and though it “felt good” for a moment this exchange of self-serving lust has affected an entire stream. We are not islands. But, if we were to use an analogy of islands this one event caused several typhoons and hurricanes on several other islands. This act of, dare I call it “love” has capsized a spouse, parents, children, and the list keeps growing.

Our vows in marriage are a contract that without the help of something supernatural are impossible to keep. I will make it abundantly clear, I am a man, a fallen man. I will fall but in my falling I hope it is on mercy that allows me to get up and keep moving with an ability powered by the grace of God.

Love is an act of the will to give others through hurt and pain. It is sometimes accompanied by affection. Sometimes, with more pain. Love protects the sanctity and purity of love by not tolerating any impurities that could taint love. These impurities are defined clearly throughout the word of God. Murder or hate, lust or self-service, slander or lying, covetiness or hoarding greedily, etc…

In the garden of the heart we also find a means for growth and fertilization through giving, serving, blessing (asking the lord to show favor to your enemies), praying, and fasting. These cause the heart to grow in love and cause self-serving love.

Paul says, that I could give all I have to the poor… But, if I don’t have love I have nothing. So, just because we give doesn’t mean we love, just because we … (fill in the blank) doesn’t necessarily mean we love.

I’m not saying this is love, this is not love, cut and dry. It will take the one who is love for us to know what love is. And for this reason we were given the holy spirit, who will pour the love of Christ into our hearts and will continue to transform us into the very image of Christ, the one who is love incarnate. Thought the guidance of the holy spirit we choose to love and in time the emotion may follow what are heart chooses.

Jesus putting off his outer garments and washing the disciples feet, this is love. Jesus laying his life down in humiliation for the very ones whom placed him there, this is love.

Love that washes, love that gives till it dies. This is the love that we need. I truly doubt John, Paul, George or even, God forbid, Ringo would sing about this kind of love.

np