Love is NOT all you need

The Sixties brought us the Summer of Love, when calls to love one another rang in the streets and on the airwaves. In 1967, The Beatles sang, All you need is love. The Youngbloods urged everyone to get together, try to love one another right now and The Age of Aquarius called for harmony and understanding. Just open up your heart, they said, and let the sunshine in. John Lennon wrote, Imagine all the people sharing all the world, living life in peace. And, Friend and Lover thought it was so groovy now that people are finally getting together. But did it work? Did we finally get together? Just look around and the answer is pretty obvious.

All of us have a deep sense and longing for love - to love and be loved - as well we should, being created in the image of God, who is love. And we all wish everyone could get along and love each other. But it will never happen this side of Heaven. There’s something more we need.

Don’t get me wrong, all the calls to love one another were very well meant. What a great notion that everyone could live peacefully with one another. And Jesus himself calls us to love, saying, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40). 

But is that really all we need? Is it really something we can achieve? I think not, and here’s why. None of us can live a life of perfect love. Every one of us falls short. Along with all the good things we do, we all think, say and do things that aren’t very loving. Envy and contempt. Anger and jealousy. And therein lies the problem each of us has.

God is love (1 John 4:8). Pefect and complete love. And don’t think that because bad things happen in this world it’s God’s fault, that he is not loving. That’s our fault. We live in fallen world because of Man, not because of God. So how do we reconcile with God who is perfect love?

It is the very foundation of God’s plan, that reconciling with him is not on the basis of how much we love, or how much good we do, but on the basis of his love for us. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus, the only person ever to live a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), laid down his life as a perfect sacrifice so that, in him, we could be reconciled with God. And it is offered by grace [grace: unmerited favor, love, and mercy of God toward humanity]. In other words, God offers us what we don’t deserve. We deserve separation from God because we don’t love perfectly and completely. Every one of us falls short. But because of his love for us, God chose to be gracious, offering us a way to be reconciled with him. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). And look at that last part - so that no one may boast. It is not about how much good we do or how much we love. We can’t love and do good enough to meet his perfect standard. It is about God being gracious toward us.

So does this mean we shouldn’t love and do good? Absolutely not! What it means is that we should not love and do good in order to earn salvation, but because of it.

So what do we need other than love? We need God’s mercy and forgiveness. We have to acknowledge our limitations to love perfectly, humble ourselves before him and accept the gift of redemption made available through Jesus. Only then will we be able to fully love appropriately.

If you have not reconciled with God, I encourage you to do so now. It’s not difficult. Talk with him in the privacy of your heart and mind. He will hear you. Admit to him that you have fallen short of his perfect love and that you want to receive the gift of redemption he makes available through Jesus. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame (Romans 10:9-11). And then tell someone that you did. Someone you know is a follower of Jesus. Because Jesus said, For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matthew 18:20).