Love? wins

In my city, which is awesome by the way, there is a strong current of social activism which manifests in many ways. One of those outlets is the whole notion of “love wins,” “love over hate,” “all we need is love,” and “no place for hate.”

Let me say that my entire worldview revolves around the notion of love. God is love, and I love God. If I say I love God and don’t love my neighbor, then I don’t love God. I can be the most religious person in all the world but if I don’t have love, then it’s all pretty worthless. So yes, I buy into the whole concept of love. The greatest display of love mankind has ever seen is Jesus Christ willingly being nailed to a cross to erase the transgressions of humanity. I’m a believer. I’m a believer in love.

Yet, the above mentioned slogans sometimes leave me wondering. How is love being defined? What is the “hate” they are referring to? What if I don’t agree with their political agenda, am I “a hater?” I offer a few brief thoughts on these questions.

Basically, I define love as living an other orientated life, or giving of myself to improve someone else’s life. I do not define love as “I accept you and your actions without discrimination, without judgment, without accountability and regardless of the moral outcome of your actions.” To understand love I look to the cross of Christ and I heed His words about loving your friends, neighbors and enemies. “This radical call to self-sacrificial, other-orientated, cross-like agape love constitutes the core of Jesus’s vision for the kingdom of God” (Boyd, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, 176).  Too often, love is confused with moral relativism.

It’s popular to say “love is all you need,” because, after all, “love wins.” When I look at the cross of Christ I do believe love wins. When I look at a “love = anything goes” culture, I do not believe love is all we need. If love means I have to accept every person, every action, every lifestyle, every opinion regardless of any sense of right and wrong, regardless of the consequences, rregardless of any thought for future generations, then I do not believe love wins. Because, that’s not love, that, ironically enough, is indifference.

Ask any parent, ask any spouse, ask anyone in love  within a healthy relationship, “does your idea of love come with boundaries, does it come with right and wrong, does it come with expectations of trust, does it come with accountability, does it come with consequences?” and they will answer yes.

Love is the greatest gift God has given humans. It is love that defines God himself. But the love that people need is worlds apart from the love that is being given in today’s culture.

Something to ink about…