All You Need Is (His) Love

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 

—1 John 4:8

In July of 1967, the Beatles released the song, “All You Need Is Love.” The song went on to become one of the top 500 songs of all time according to Rolling Stone. It is reported that the Lennon and McCartney wrote the song they wanted a song containing a simple message to be understood by all nationalities. "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message," said Brian Epstein. "The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything."

Is love everything? What is love? Go to Barnes & Noble and you will find more books, CD’s, and movies about love than any other subject. I Googled “love” as a definition and I got 1.36 billion hits. That’s incredible when you think that there are 6 billion people on the planet and probably half of the world doesn't have access to the Internet. That’s phenomenal. We all want love, to be loved, and to love others. The question is, what is love? And, like the Beatles, is that what the world needs? Is it just love? And did love just appear on the scene with Christ?

I would have to disagree with the theological impulses of the Beatles. Love can be a relative term, so just so that we may not have any obscurity on the issue, I want to talk about “love” as the Bible looks at it. Because the word that we use so often today to understand everything is “Love.” And I believe that the “Love” the world talks about and the “love” the Bible talks about are two very separate and distinct things. The love that God has for the world is as distinct from the love as the Beatles are talking about like a raindrop being called an ocean, or a mound of dirt in Aurora, being called Mt. Everest. The love the world knows and the love the Bible talks about are two very separate and opposing things.

The Greeks understood the complexity and diversity of love and employed four words in their description of it. There was phileo-which is brotherly love, from which we get the name of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. And then there is agape—which is God’s love for us. Then we have the eros of love—that of an intimate nature between a husband and wife, and then there is the storge love—the love a mother for a child and vice versa.

Love is a complex thing that is difficult to give a definition to. It’s almost like trying to define water. We may say that it is two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, but that only gives the physical elements that make it up. That doesn’t describe what water does or feels like. H20 doesn’t describe my need for it. It doesn’t describe how I get thirsty. It doesn’t describe how it feels on my hands or my body. It doesn’t describe how it cleanses my body. It only defines it. Suffice to say, I define love as the way in which God gives us Himself and shows His feeling for us, and how we in turn respond to Him. This doesn’t go into the scientific definition; rather it shows feeling, action, and the state of one’s heart. Love is never static; it is giving in its essence and exists only in reference to its relationship to others. God, in His nature, gives us Himself and supremely gave us Himself through the person of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we give ourselves back to Christ by showing or revealing our love for Him by doing what He has called us to be and do. And then, this love for God overflows to others. We give of ourselves to others in order that Christ love might be seen in us and extending through us to them. Love, then, is giving ourselves as an expression of our heart that demonstrates God’s love shed to us as we extend that to other people.

According to Scripture, we know that God is love, but love is not God. That’s the problem that I have with the Beatles’ comment. Love is not “everything.” God is. God is love, but as we say that we must understand what that means. For within God we have a unity of being between the three persons of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The three exist in a mutual, ever-loving relationship.

Love cannot be understood apart from God. In order to have love, there must be relationship. Without relationship, there is no love. And because God Himself is relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, is where the essence of love derives. His love overflows to us and wants us to overflow with love to others. Have we experienced the love of God poured out for us in Christ? And are we overflowing in love to others?

May God help us to understand and be filled with His love and may His love pour out to others through us. Amen.