Tina Turner released a catchy tune back in 1984 entitled,
“What’s Love Got To Do With It?” She laments in the lyrics, “Who needs a heart
when a heart can be broken?” We can all relate to having our hearts broken at
one time or another and maybe even having the thought or said out of our pain, “Who
needs love anyway?” In time, the next thing we discovered was that Cupid’s (the god of
desire in classical mythology) arrow had found its mark once again. Well, we
know Cupid had nothing to do with it, but we realized that love’s flame was not
completely snuffed out; there was life after heartache.
The Apostle Paul would respond to Tina’s question, I believe, by
saying that God’s love has everything to do with life! And this is good for us
to remember! Paul in his classic passage on love in 1 Cor 13 concluded if he
didn’t have love (agape), he was “nothing” (1 Cor 13:2); we would paraphrase
that to mean that without love he was admitting that he was a big fat goose
egg, a zero, having the big “L” branded on his forehead for being a “Loser.”
At the end of that wonderful and most enlightening chapter on
agape love, he declared that love was greater than even faith or hope (1 Cor
13:13); for when faith and hope are no longer needed in eternity, love will go
on! Keep in mind this was written under the supervision of the Holy Spirit (2
Tim 3:16). Love (agape) was the prime mover (Jn 3:16) for incredible things to come
to fruition, for impossible things to happen, for the way that things happen in
the will of God, for the way that things should happen as we obey God’s will
for our life. Jesus was agape love incarnate. This is why we pattern our love
gift after Him. It wasn’t any wimpy kind of love that Jesus shared; it was a
love that drove Him to the cross for you and me. A love that desired God’s will
over His own desires. In fact His will was to do the will of the Father even to
the death of the cross!
Today, there is a great deal of emphasis on love, but I’m afraid
in reality it is nothing more than counterfeit love, a worldly love parading
itself as agape love or the supernatural love of God. The world is well
acquainted with its own kind of love that all men share. But there is an alien
love to the human framework that resides only in the hearts of the regenerate
(Rom 5:5). But this is not the love that is being peddled, pushed, and passed
on as God’s love for it is nothing more than a natural or human love common to
all men. And often times we express a natural love in the flesh, thinking
we are pleasing to God. The love God desires for us to reveal to others
is the love He gave to us at regeneration, not the love we had at
birth that is passing away.
We can discern the difference between natural love and
supernatural love when the truth of Scripture becomes mishandled (Psa 56:5; 2
Pet 3:16) or expendable (Mk 7:13). Since Jesus never compromised the truth for
grace, we can conclude that such behavior of expressing love without biblical standards
is non-Christ-like behavior, a natural love. Agape love is a love with a higher more noble purpose (seeking the
highest good for others, Christ-likeness); agape love maintains the highest
standards (the principles of Scripture), and agape love is sacrificial (it
gives the best that it has to give). Natural love pales in comparison.
Since the heart is the seat of our intellect, emotions, and
will, these three known capacities of the heart are involved in our expressions
of love. Whenever our intellect or emotions dominates the other, everything
gets out of whack. If we are overly objective in our service to God (cf. the
Ephesians, Rev 2:1-7), we tend to isolate ourselves from others who do not think
the way we do, becoming merely academic or intellectual, cold, distant,
liturgical, ritualistic, legalistic, dogmatic, polarizing, and self-righteous
toward others.
If we are overly subjective in our service to God (cf. the Corinthians,
1 Cor 12:31), we act just the opposite of the overly objective group; we are
inclined to socialize, entertain, and embrace any and everyone whether they
think like we do or not, becoming overly emotional (mushy) and lowering godly
standards in the name of love and acceptance with a non-judgmental attitude to
help others and “reach peoples for Christ.”
Both extremes move beyond the realm of agape love and are not
Christ-like in manner because both positions violate the first and second
commands of Scripture. When the first command goes south, everything, and I do
mean everything, follows. That’s why it is the number one priority in God’s way
of thinking. Thus, the importance of loving the LORD with the all-ness or totality
of our being and expressing the supernatural outflow of that relationship
towards others, hence the vital connection of the first command to the second. Trusting
in Him in the daily routines of life also involves this same all-ness (cf. Prov
3:5-6). God wants and settles for nothing less than the whole of us,
not the part. We are blood-bought; therefore, He owns us; it is His right and
His desire (1 Cor 6:19, 20).
I am of the opinion it is in the proper vertical relationship (Mk
12:30) guided by the truth of the Bible that inspires, motivates, and energizes the
horizontal relationships (Mk 12:31) in the same truth in being obedient in releasing
the love of God within us, which we had received at the moment of regeneration, outwardly toward others.
Naturally, without the Holy Spirit’s help, we can’t manifest the love of God on our own.
When we are obedient (which is a choice thing) we tend to choose
to do the right things, and we when are disobedient there is a proclivity in
making the wrong choices. Disobedience in the life of a believer is really a
love problem (Jn 14:15) as well as a failure to fear God (Eccl 12:13). For the
unbeliever love is not the issue for the Holy Spirit does not live within the
heart of the unregenerate. For them, there is no fear of God in their eyes and
live life accordingly in darkness (1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4).
The truth of the matter is that as believers we need not only a
cerebral faith but also a compassionate faith aligned with the truth of
Scripture that can infuse a way of life with meaning and passion that is
visceral, vibrant, and vigilant to the things of God.
Whenever we love God with all our
hearts, the seat of our intellect, emotions, and will, we are engaged to its
fullest. The secret to loving God is in loving Him with our entire mind, all of
our feelings, and all of our will in keeping His commands (cf. Jn 14:15) Rom 12:1, 2 really comes into play here.
The
Holy Spirit then gives us wisdom on how to properly manage our intellect,
emotions, and will in the circumstances of life in a way that is pleasing to
God according to the Scriptures. Who knows better than the Spirit of God
involved in the revealing of truth (Jn 16:13; 2 Pet 1:21) (cf. 1 Cor 2:9-16 where Paul
speaks of revelation [10-11], inspiration [12-13], and illumination [14-16])!
But for the Spirit of God to strike a balance with our thinker,
feeler, and chooser, we must be under His control and that is under the
authority of the Word. Again, we can’t do this without Him or where to
begin. This is where being filled with the Spirit comes in (Eph 5:18). Being Spirit-controlled
means every area of our life is under His control. There is no formula in
Scripture that states do this for the intellect, and do this for your emotions,
and do that for your will because its effectiveness centers around a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ at all times and growing in grace in the knowledge of Him (2 Pet 3:18).
A right relationship with God is living a Spirit-filled or
Spirit-controlled life; God is in control of our life determining our course of
action, leading us to be holy as He is holy in an unholy world. This is way more
than we can muster in our own strength for our sinful nature loathes the very
things of God! I have never experienced my sinful nature ever being cooperative in
the things of God; you know what I’m talking about. Paul gave us a promise that
if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16).
Not only does the fruit of the Spirit give us insight into what the Spirit-filled
walk looks like (Gal 5:22, 23), but He, the Holy Spirit, also reveals what a self-willed walk looks like in Gal 5:19, 20, 21. These things are absent in the life of a believer in a
Spirit-filled walk, and the fruit of the Spirit is missing in the self-filled lifestyle.
Our love for others is really a mirror of our love for God.
Another way of saying it is that our love for God will determine how we treat
others created in the image of God though marred by sin, the unsaved and saved alike.
The two great commands of Scripture (Mk 12:30, 31) are inextricably linked
together; note what Jesus said concerning them,
“There is no other commandment greater than these two [added]”
(Mk 12:31b).
“On these two
commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Mt 22:40).
We could have one without the other if we were the only person
living on the face of the earth. Since that isn’t a reality, we should love God
according to the Word. When we do that, we will know how to love others in a
way that is pleasing to Him; it will always be according
to the power of the Spirit and the truth of Scripture and never according
to self: in our own strength or doing that which is right in our
own eyes.
What does love have to do with it? Though Tina was singing about natural love, the right kind of love has everything to do with keeping two very important relationships found in the first and second commands (Mk 12:30-31). Agape love has everything to do with our love for God and our love for our neighbors. Paul reminds us that there is "a more excellent way" (1 Cor 12:31). We read of it in 1 Cor 13.
What does love have to do with it? Though Tina was singing about natural love, the right kind of love has everything to do with keeping two very important relationships found in the first and second commands (Mk 12:30-31). Agape love has everything to do with our love for God and our love for our neighbors. Paul reminds us that there is "a more excellent way" (1 Cor 12:31). We read of it in 1 Cor 13.
Without love, we are nothing (cf. 1 Cor 13:2). We need to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 1:21; 1 Jn 4:8). The agape kind of love is everlasting (cf. 1 Cor 13:13). Expressions of love (agape) are always on the
positive side of zero (1 Cor 13:2). <><
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