Every human knows intuitively that love is a good thing. People often say, “the world needs more love” or maybe an adage like “love what you do and do what you love.” Of course, the word is used in a wide spectrum of ways. People describe their feelings toward pizza, dogs, and their grandmother with the same word. Some people equate love with permissiveness, while others say discipline is a part of love. How can humans agree upon what love is unless they have a standard?
For Christians, there is an easy identification for the standard of love – God (1 John 4:8). A person may claim that they do not need to know God to have love, but they are missing a critical point. Think about it this way, people may want their own definition of love, but love is cheapened if no one can agree upon its expectations. The reason love has so much universal value is because all humans know at a base level that love is more than a subjective feeling. They seek a higher standard for love that is not based on human emotions. If love is subjective, then there is no way to expect people to love in a certain way because everyone chooses their own standard. As a result, friendships, marriages, religions, and societies are all over the place because people “love in their own way.” However, if there is a universal example for what it means to love, then everything gets to filter through it.
God is the ultimate example for what it means to love. Without God, there would be no standard for love. Since He is the Creator of everything and is positioned above all things, He is the one who decides how people should love. John, by inspiration, says, “let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). The world has a hard time understanding love because they do not understand truth. As Jesus states, “[God’s] word is truth” (John 17:17). For humans to live out love correctly, they need a complete picture of love, which is shown fully in God’s word.
The reason why John 3:16 is so impactful is because it shows the epitome of love that all people can admire. For Christians, we love God and others because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). When we love from God’s perspective, we can practice patience, show kindness, rejoice with others, speak humbly, and seek the good of others (1 Cor. 13:4-7). Therefore, we work hard to love genuinely and to love with brotherly affection that is based on God as the standard (Rom. 12:9-10). We practice God’s love when we patiently work with the new Christian who is trying to deal with the consequences of their past. When we do good deeds for those who are in need, we display God’s care. The hurting family who lost a loved one can know the love of God as Christians surround them and lift them up. Once we know the love of God, then we get to show others that his love sets the bar in all things.
-Billy Camp