Love Wins!

What is Love?

We live in a time of incredible tension. War is constant, death is real and persecution is on the rise. In a day and age when people need each other the most, love is forgotten and truth is forsaken. Too many of us have swallowed the lie of our culture that "disagreement is hate." But is it? If you loved someone, wouldn't you tell them that the wine they are drinking is laced with arsenic even if it made them angry?

Love is something we all talk about. It's the dream we hope for; the feeling we crave. It's the need that we desperately want to be met. Wars are fought and battles are raged for the sake of love. Yet, at perhaps no other point in human history, has love been so greatly misunderstood by so many. What is love?

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If you really love somebody then you will put your own interests aside and think of their needs first. If you really love somebody, then you will do whatever is necessary to rescue that person from destroying themselves through drugs, alcohol or suicide. If you really love someone, then you are willing to die for them so that they will live. This is love! Love is always seeking life. It is always seeking for the goodwill and benefit of others.

The World in Which We Live

 

Today's world is full of contradictions that claim to be absolutes. Sweeping statements are made and opinions formed without knowing the truth. The media, pop culture, and the education system are preparing people against the Truth of God's Word. Just one example of this is how they have warped the definition of love. Before we discuss the five examples I have listed below, let me first give a short disclaimer. I love all people. My love is not based upon a person's religion, race, gender, or relationship status. I view people through the eyes of God's grace and see all as human beings created in God's image, existing for a purpose, and desperately in need of the Lord Jesus to rescue them. That being said, it is out of my love for people that I want to knock the cup of poison out of their hand before it is too late.
 

1) Planned Parenthood

Abortion kills. There is no further explanation needed. When the royal family announced there pregnancy, everybody shouted for joy! A new baby and heir to the throne was coming into the world. They didn't say a cluster of cells was forming in a womb. No, everyone knew it was a person. However, if someone heads toward the nearest abortion clinic, nobody would think twice because it's just a cluster of cells? But which is it? A fetus can't be both a person and a cluster of cells with no value.

 

If a pregnant woman is murdered, then the murderer is tried with a double homicide. If our culture states that a fetus is not a baby until birth then why should the murderer be charged with taking two lives? If a doctor kills a baby outside of the womb that action is ruled as a homicide, however, if he kills the same baby inside the womb everything is fine. It's just called an abortion instead of a murder.

Planned Parenthood would tell you that it is loving to keep a baby from suffering if they have a disability. Planned Parenthood would tell you that it is only loving that a woman who was raped abort her child so she is not forced to remember the horrific crime every time she sees the baby. Planned Parenthood would tell you that it is only loving to spare a child from a difficult life if you are not in the greatest financial position. Planned Parenthood would tell you that it is loving to think about yourself and your own dreams in life and, if a child would inhibit those dreams, to remove the problem.

Is this love?

2) The Homosexual Community

There is a reason why fornicators become diseased with STD's. There is a reason why homosexual couples cannot naturally have children. There is a reason why homosexuals cannot give blood. It is because it is both naturally and morally wrong. My hope is not that their bodies would be ravaged by disease. On the contrary, my desire is that they would remain physically healthy and come to the Lord to make them spiritually pure that they may enjoy a long and healthy life serving Him. Caring for someone's health, welfare and good fortune is not hate, but love. This community, because of their hate, fails to recognize that it is actually Christians who love them the most in this world.

While other religions attempt to kill anyone associated with this community, Christians are the ones offering protection from the enemy. While the media and proponents of the homosexual movement may call Christians bigots, hate mongers, and closed-minded, we are the ones offering true life and hope. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, will never agree or approve of the homosexual community as it is diametrically opposed to God's Word and design. However, we will always love the person even though we do not support the sinful lifestyle.  Marriage has a purpose much greater than two people who like each other. It is to reflect Christ and the Church and that can only be done through heterosexual marriage.

Some say that it is unloving to suppress same-sex desires. Some say that it is loving to do what feels right. Still others say that the homosexual community is just about love and the freedom to love whomever however you choose. However, God is love and He would never ask us to do something that would bring us harm. It is sin that seeks to destroy. Just as those with heterosexual attractions are not permitted to sleep with every person they come into contact with, those with same-sex tendencies are expected to exercise restraint and self-control. God is a loving Father and it is only by knowing Him that a person can truly come to know the reality of true love.

 

3) The Transgender Movement

It seems like out of nowhere the transgender movement has come onto the scene and has demanded media attention from all platforms. Whether transgender students, bathrooms, or employees, chances are today's headlines contain some story about transgenders. However, did you know that four out of ten transgenders commit suicide? That's a huge percentage that cannot be ignored. Even Bruce Jenner, the face of the transgender movement regrets his decision. Yet, we rarely hear about the overwhelming rate of depression among those who have actually gone through with transgender surgery. Years ago (but not that many years) if a man came to a psychiatrist and shared that he thought he was a woman trapped in a man's body, he would be diagnosed with a mental disease. Years ago (but not that many years) if a young girl demonstrated masculine characteristics, people would have called her a tomboy rather than thinking she was actually a boy trapped in a girl's body.

The purpose of our gender is to reflect God's image and authority over our lives. God has created men and women complementary but distinct, each with the purpose of reflecting different aspects of His own character. Tragically, Satan has distorted our view and has blinded the minds of unbelievers. No longer do we see the beauty in masculinity and femininity. Now we blur the distinctions to create sameness with no value given to each other's differences and strengths.

We've heard that it is only loving to allow children to choose their own gender identity. We've heard that it is unloving to force people to live life as their biological gender. We've been told that if we really love someone, then we will alter society to accept and support transgenders. However, just as with homosexuals, this is a destructive distortion of love. It is loving to help someone through this mental and emotional struggle. It is loving to speak truth into their lives rather than say nothing and allow them to go down a dark and depressing road. It is loving to direct them to the only One who can give them hope.

4) Black Lives Matter

Publically they promote the love of life but in reality this antagonistic group is fueled by racism and selfish conceit. This group does not love anybody but themselves. If this group loved like they say they do and promoted the value of life then police officers would not fear for their lives. If they truly valued all black lives, then the needless death of the African American officers would also be protested. Instead, they choose to build up racial walls and support those who defy our laws. The only agenda this hateful group promotes is that only some lives matter.

Christians have been raised to believe that all lives matter because true love always desires people to live not die! Even one of the children's songs sung in Sunday School demonstrates this truth:

Jesus loves the little children

All the children of the world

Red, brown, yellow

Black and white

They are precious in His sight.

Jesus loves the little children

Of the world.

 



We have been told that black lives matter. That the police are evil. That racism is alive and well. Is love dead? Is hate really what is fueling our country? Can we trust our law-enforcement? I assure you that love is not dead. Those who are fueled by hate may have gained the most media attention but I look around at my own little pocket of America and I do not see hate. I see people looking for truth, for hope and for love.



5) The Removal of Christianity

Many see this as a good thing. After all, Christians are just a bunch of closed-minded bigots with an old book containing outdated rules. What they miss is that Christianity is the only reason why there is freedom and true love in this world. Without Christianity there is no meaning to live. It is only Christianity that life is shown as sacred. The removal of God from a society has and will never result in success. On the contrary, throughout all human history, removing God has only brought the downfall and destruction of a civilization.

The day we remove God is the day we dismiss all authority. The day we remove God is the day we lose all basis for truth. The day we remove God is the day that we forsake love in exchange for lust.

Conclusion

 

God is love. While that is comforting, that should also terrify us because what He loves most is His glory. When we think that we can live however we feel because God loves us, we must think again! Hell is a real place for real people. Because God is love, it is in and through His love that He offers to give us life and to have it abundantly so that we do not spend eternity separated from Him.

 

"...but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8 (See also John 3:16).

 

The prayer of my heart is that you would come to know Christ as Savior and submit to Him as Lord. In and of ourselves we cannot change. We are slaves to our sin and dead in our transgressions. Apart from God we are incapable of even experiencing life. But God, being rich in mercy sent His Son to pay the debt that we owed. He not only paid our debt, but He offers to give us life and to have it abundantly. He offers us victory from sin and true freedom.

What is love? God! Does love win? Absolutely, thanks to Christ!