By Kristen Lowrey
Staff Writer
John 3:16. Probably the most quoted verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Most sermons I’ve heard on this verse focus on the redeeming value of Christ being sent to die on the cross for our sins, and although this is an essential element to Christianity, there was more to Christ’s purpose on earth than his death; what he did in his life for example.
God sent Christ as an example of perfection. Christ embodies the greatest command in one word: love.
1 John 4:7-8 expresses this command of loving one another “because love is of God and he who does not love does not know God.”
But how do we know what love is? And how do we know how to love?
Society tells us that love is romantic; it’s wild and passionate and aesthetically pleasing. Our parents and family show us a love that is hopefully more unconditional and stable. And although love is all of these things, it can also become twisted. Many people do not know how to express their love in words, but what about showing our love through actions?
This is often more effective than simply words, because words can seem empty without the actions to support them; both words and actions are important. This is the problem in modern society, a distorted perception of love.
A man may express his love to his wife in words, but if he does not show that love through commitment to their vows, then that love is empty and fruitless. Someone might be in a relationship where they are told they are loved, but then that love is manifest in abuse. These are both instances of misplaced love. Paul-Thomas Anderson’s movie “Magnolia” is a good example of how misplaced love becomes resolved and it even uses a biblical context to bring that resolution into place.
We only know how to love based on the way love has been shown to us.
The only perfect love that I have found is the love from God. All others will pass away, or fall short of the expectations I have of a perfect love.
Scripture says in 1 John 4:19 that “We love because he first loved us.”
Love is a product of socialization. God knew that we would be relational people and so he sent his son to show us how to love others. Thomas A. Kempis, a German monk, knew this perfect love and explained it well: The love of things created is deceiving and inconstant; the love of Jesus is true and enduring. He that cleaveth unto creatures shall fall when they fall; but he that embraceth Jesus shall be made steadfast for ever …When all have gone, he will not forsake thee, nor, at thine end, will he suffer thee to perish. The time will come when thou must be separated from all, whether though willest or not.”
Explore that perfect love in Christ and if you do not agree that it is a perfect example of love, then I challenge anyone to explain its imperfection.
— Think you’ve found that perfect love in Christ? E-mail sklowrey@pepperdine.edu.
February 20, 2003
