You may have heard these lyrics from John Lennon and The Beatles:

There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time
It’s easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
OK, yes, the Beatles’ song "All You Need is Love" is insipid nonsense. On the other hand, it represents the nearly total sentimentalization of the traditional hard-edged Christian concept of love. G. K. Chesterton, in his classic book, Orthodoxy, noted that the secularized modern world exploits and expends the moral capital of Christianity by pulling the great virtues of our faith apart and running off with them in various directions. These moral truths then become ideological half-truths and sappy cliches.

Look, for instance, at how the Beatles song uses - and abuses - the distinctly Christian virtue of love. Instead of it being the selfless giving of oneself for the sake of others, love becomes a sugary sentiment. This saccharin and sappy form of love denies that we need to repent of our sin or that sin even exists. Love loses its deepest meaning and becomes a superficial feeling.

However, true Christian love is not rooted in human feelings. Rather, it is rooted in the act of God to give His Son to die for our sins. Paul puts it this way:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Christian love first looks to God and not to man or to self. Christians don’t determine their love by what they feel for other people. Christians determine their love by what God has done for them. As I fathom God’s unimaginable love for me - in all my failed humanity - I am compelled to offer the same kind of self-giving love to others. To do this, I desperately need God’s grace and help.

PRAYER
First, Lord, today I thank you for your amazing love. Help me to focus on all that you have done for me and how you gave your Son to die for my sins and failings. Help me also to give love to others, even those who are unlovely. It is easy to love those people that are a blessing to me. Help me to love those who are not.

ONE MORE THING...
Please join us this Sunday, November 18, 2007 at 9:00 am 10:30 am as we continue our series, "War of the Worlds". I will be taking an in depth look at 2 Peter 1:3-11 with this week's focus being on the "winning the war of MATURITY."

Blessings...





P.S. I'd also love to get your comments and questions. You can leave a comment or question by clicking on the thought bubble below. See you on Sunday!


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Image courtesy of Getty Images. Photographer: Tamara Reynolds. Image #: 993275-001