There is a statement in our culture that is used to justify immoral actions. Like a seal of approval, this statement is plastered upon the unnatural affections of homosexuality, bestiality, pederasty, polyamory and all manner of fetishes. The statement? Love is love.
Three months ago, a banner appeared on the front porch of a rental farmhouse down the road from our property. The rainbow colored banner said “Love is love.” I remarked to my wife on the way home from church that Sabbath when we first saw the banner “Maybe we should put a sign on our porch that says “Truth is truth.”
I am pleased to say that the banner got taken down after a couple weeks, possibly at the request of the property owner.
This may come as a shock to the postmodern culturalist or the naïve church member, but the Bible teaches just the opposite. Love is not love. In fact, there are different kinds of love explained in the Bible. Whether or not our love is legitimate is determined not only by the kind of love we have but the object of our love. Let’s look at some Bible examples.
Potluck
The Bible describes people who love the best seats at potluck (banquets and feasts). They loved sitting in places of honor (Matthew 23:6). The most honored seats at banquets were those closest to the host. Similarly, the esteemed positions in the synagogue were those closest to the scrolls of the law, or the most visible. In Luke 14:8–11 Jesus responded to people who were jockeying for the most honored seats at a banquet by saying this:
"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
What is the real issue here? It is Pride. Some people love seats of honor because it makes them feel like they are better than other people. Pride is an exalted love of self. Love of self is not love.
Darkness
The Bible says that some people love darkness because their actions are evil (John 3:19). Darkness provides cover for wickedness and the light of the gospel is a terror to this wicked world. It’s interesting, when we love bad things, we end up hating good things, in this instance, the light of truth (V.20).
People who are determined to cling to evil do not come to this light, but keep as far away from it as they can, lest their deeds should be reproved. They love darkness. And love of darkness is not love.
Demas
"Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10). Translation: "I'm outta here, dudes." Just as there are different types of love (agape, storge, phileo, and eros) there are different objects for it, and some of them are diametrically opposed. The more we love God, the more we hate the things He hates. The more we love this "present world" the less able we are to care about the one to come.
Loving Lies
The Book of Revelation describes the cosmic outcasts of the ages. In a world of good and evil, righteousness is by definition exclusive and these people are the ultimate exclusions of righteousness (Revelation 22:15). They love untruth.
“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
Some people love the untruth. That love is not love.
The fuel of righteousness is truth, as it is written:
“They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness” (Zechariah 8:8).
“In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You” (Isaiah 26:1–3).
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8–10).
Genuine Love
Jesus said to him,
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
And,
Great peace have they who love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them (Psalm 119:165).
This is the correct kind of love, the love of God that awakens in our hearts (Romans 5:5).
So the next time you hear these idioms: "For the love of Pete”, or "Love makes the world go round", or "All you need is love" and its churchy counterpart "Just preach love not doctrine, man" ask this critical question. "What kind of love are they talking about?"
There are those who "love darkness" in John 3:19. The Bible excludes from heaven those who "make and love a lie" (Revelation 22:15). The "love of money is the root of many evils" (1 Timothy 6:10), and of course, we have the potluck posse in Matthew 23:6 "They love the best seats at feasts." Available in many flavors, false love is the twin brother of hatred.
Now let's turn our attention to real love – the power of creation, the pulse of harmony that runs the universe. It walked among us (John 1:14). And we still can't get over it.
Into a Roman world of cruelty and despair came this new idea of agape, a love embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of this lone Galilean. Jesus brought to view in His life a love that overturned all human values because it revealed dimensions of God's character which no one had thought possible. God's Son actually died as a cosmic outcast nailed to a Roman cross! People couldn't get over the idea.
Jesus revealed a love that went as far as the grave and out the other side, redeeming lost humanity. God Himself was seeking man—not vice versa—and the price He was willing to pay was infinitely individualized. That is, each human being was individually the object of that divine love. God’s love is love.
Our Lord predicted that the end of time would be marked by the loss of two essential ingredients: faith and love. He foresaw our time as a predominantly post-Christian culture when He said, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love (agape) of most will grow cold" (Matthew 24: 12). Christ's word for wickedness (anomia in Greek) literally means lawlessness in the sense of rebellion against the holy Law of God. It is lighthearted irreverence for God's will, an open sepulchre of selfishness, an arrogant flaunting of ultimate judgment.
God’s love is love. God’s love will carry us through to the end, friends. Don’t leave home without it. We certainly won’t leave this world without it.
