Feb
22
Limits to Love
Filed Under Devotional
Love is enough. Love conquers all. All you need is love.
These can be read as profound, meaningful statements. Or, they can be read as shallow, thoughtless statements. I fear that some people give the respect of the first kind when most of those speaking them really say them as the second kind.
If this is where you start with a discussion of love, it’s not a distant leap to start saying things like, “How can you exclude them? Can’t you just love everyone?” or “All love is love” or “How can you disapprove of someone because of who they love?”. But, let’s back up and use a little logic.
When you are describing any concept or idea, it’s just as valuable to contrast it with what it is not. Those who have a broader idea of love like to list all of the positive and inclusive language of love from the Bible. Those verses are certainly right and valid, but they cannot be read without also understanding those scriptures that discuss what love is not. Let’s use the love chapter:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Paul is drawing some clear lines here. I think the key defining line is that “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth”. In the NASB it reads, “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;”. So, we see that you cannot have a definition of love that accepts and gives strength to unrighteous behavior. That simply is not the love God has defined for us in His Word.
So, the truthful (but, perhaps painful) answer here is that love excludes many actions and ideas. Love does not apply to every relationship. Love does not encompass all behaviors. It doesn’t take much to see what is and is not unrighteous in God’s eyes. It is not love to permit and encourage unrighteous behavior. The loving thing to do is to stand for real love. Explain real love to those who have misunderstood it.
Love really is enough. Love really does conquer all. Love really is all you need. But, make sure it’s the clearly-defined love Paul describes and not some vague, amorphous love that the world offers.