The Law of Love-- Seldom Mentioned, Slightly Understood

No word in the history of religion has been bantered about more than the word love.  And yet, the word has been "religiously" avoided as well-- perhaps because it is so vast in its implications that we continually find ourselves coming up short in grasping the depth of its meaning.  "Love," we say, "oh everybody knows what that is."  But we know from personal experience that is not true.  I have been preaching and teaching on love for 40 years, and even now I find myself coming up just as short as ever in understanding love's greatest implications.

Part of the problem is that the word exists on so many levels.  "I love sports."  "I love pie." "I love my friends."  "I love my spouse and children."  "I love God, and I know He loves me."  These statements demonstrate just how broadly we use and misuse the word.  The English language is wonderful, but it fails us miserably in its attempts to relate the concept of love.  But not so in the Greek language, the language of the New Testament.  Considering the broad range of statements just mentioned, the Greek language would have employed three different words to relate these concepts.

But nowhere has the word love been more neglected than in its use by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-38.  We call it "The Great Commandment."  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment."  Jesus' use of the word "commandment" should cause us to relate it to the Law, but seldom if ever is it done.  Religion has come to view law in the context of punishment, penalty, retribution.  But never in my experience with religion have I been taught about "love" and "commandments" in the same thought.  But we must.  For if we do not relate law and love together, then we miss most of what we need to know about forgiveness, deliverance, and restoration in our relationship with God.  Law says, "You have failed, and you must suffer the consequences."  But in the redemptive work of Christ, love says, "Yes, you messed up, but because I love you, I have paid the penalty and you are welcomed back to right-standing."

Because religion has failed to relate this God-kind of love, it has abdicated its role in interpreting who God really is to the very world that needs Him.  Dear friends, it is time to return to the commandment-- the Great Commandment!  For the very commandment that admonishes us to love God, also instructs us to "love our neighbor as ourselves."  Carrying out our mission to reach this world depends on it, and all eternity hangs in the balance.

Paul Kenley