Monday January 2nd, 2012 I went to my church's College and Career Bible Study. We have been doing a verse by verse/topical study of 1 John; that night we looked at Love.
Love it is a very ambiguous term, especially in our culture we use it for a variety of things from our "love" of Starbucks, to the "love" a mother has for her newborn, to the "love" we have for the girl or guy on the dance floor. Love in our culture has become a word to describe anything from a shallow definition to a deep meaningful understanding. We also have a hard time to define love because we only have one word to describe multiple forms of love, whereas other languages and cultures have multiple words for love.
Christians are supposed to Love and are even told by Jesus to "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "Love God". Even non-Christians and nonreligious people remind Christians of that. "Hey didn't your god say 'Love' all the time?" And unfortunately they see Christians as "Haters of All Mankind," the same way the early church was called "Haters of All Mankind" and persecuted for that.
But why is that? Why are Christians, who are supposed to Love so against Love?
Christians are known for their hate, their bigotry, and their hypocrisy. Even some Christians see this and rebel and call out other Christians to Love.
So what Love does the world want from Christians? Most People want acceptance; they want you to accept them for who or what they are no matter what and don't even try to judge me. They spread the message of "You are perfect the way you are and don't need to change, no mater what" while also saying "if anyone tells you otherwise, they need to change."
Wait Hold on! They are sending two conflicting messages of what love is and what acceptance is.
So what do Christians mean when they talk about Love?
Christians talk about the Love of God, the Love that flows from God, because "God is Love". He Demonstrated his love that while we were still sinners Christ Died for us and because of that he not only wiped the slate clean but throws it to the ocean floor, forgotten. The love that he provided himself as the propitiation for our sins and took his own wrath upon himself.
So Christians are not against Love they have a whole passage on Love, the Famous "Love is patient Love is kind.." They also worship the God who stated the Greatest Commandment is to Love God, Love Others.
So its not that Christians are against love they are against any cheap imitation of true love, the love that flows from the Father.
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