What's Love Got To Do With It

M y wife, Andi, and I have 2 sons and 5 grand-children, with Matrix being the oldest at age 15. When he was around 6 or 7, Matrix would sometimes stay over at our house for the night. One Friday morning Matrix and I walked over to our church to get things set up for Sabbath worship. As I was getting things ready, Matrix decided he was going to have a sermon and went up to the pulpit to preach like Grandpa. He paused for a moment, wrote a little, paused, wrote a little, then he began to speak…“I love Grandpa, and I love Grandma.” Then he would write a little more on a piece of paper and continue, “I love my brother Aden and my little sister Raven.” Pausing to write a little more, he then said, “I love my Mom and I love my Dad,” Pausing for some note writing, he ended with, “And I love God and Jesus too! Amen!” He chose a closing song from the hymn book and we all sang “Jesus Loves Me” together. Now, that’s a real sermon on love, isn’t it? And it didn’t take an hour like grandpa to get it out! We kept that sermon on the fridge for some time.

As human beings, just celebrating Valentine’s Day, we know we need love and many times we say we want love or to be loved, but how to get love seems to be illusive. So, we try to buy it, earn it, use it and abuse it. As Andi and I were growing up, there was an old rock and roll singer by the name of Tina Turner. She was a diva singer with all of her stage antics, puffy hair, and screaming voice. But one of her more popular songs, posed an interesting question about love in the chorus,…“What’s love got to do with it? Got to do with it? Got to do with it?” So I ask, what’s love got to do with our living this life as a disciple of Jesus?

After washing the disciple’s feet. Jesus emphasizes love as serving one another by saying “a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34,35) What’s love got to do with it? In an encounter with the spiritual leaders of his day, Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, “answering the neighbor question with a story of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-29)

So, what’s love got do with our being a disciple of Christ? John answers with, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God….for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the atonement for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (1 John 4:7-21)

What’s love got to do with it? Well, I know one thing, the lack of real Love produces all kinds of chaos and trouble. The lack of real Love drives people to battle, leads people to lust, sends people into depression, discouragement and despair. The lack of real Love causes people to be impatient, critical and persecuting.

There’s a song entitled, “Love Is a Seven Letter Word,” and it portrays the idea that lots of people think they know all about the subject of love, but after considering such things as lust, fun, money, and popularity, the discovery is that we are just playing the game of love and end up with cheap thrills, pain and misery, heartache, and loneliness in the end. The chorus of the song concludes that real love is spelled with a seven letter word, C A L V A R Y. The song points us to the real source of love, our Savior Jesus Christ, and His full expression of this love on Calvary. Love has everything to do with our relationship with God, and our relationships with others, and true love is a seven letter word, CALVARY. Now that we know where and how to get real love, let’s accept it and share it by loving others, what do you say? (Homework Assignment – 1 Corinthians 13)

Jim Nichols

Retired Pastor

Sidney Seventh-day Adventist Church