Love

Two times in chapter 4 of 1 John, it is said that God is love (v8, 16). The larger context is focusing on the love of God as exhibited by sending of the Son into the world as a supreme expression of love. While the text does not say that God is only love, or that love is God, it is clear that love is so basic and intrinsic to God's very Being that he actually personifies this quality in total perfection. So when we want to know what perfect love is, 1 John is telling us to look to God, and more specifically to look at the gift of the Son.

This is important, because the Christian faith confesses that this Son was both divine and human. There is a sense in which the human nature of Christ is somehow involved in the perfection of love. What does this mean for us? One thing it means is that to the extent that we participate with Christ in authentic humanity, we can exhibit authentic love too. As images of God, love is basic to our constitution as well. We cannot not love, because to do so would be to no longer be human and to eradicate completely God's image in us.

We are made to love, and we are desperate to love. This is both a wonderful blessing and a potentially disastrous curse in a fallen world. It is an enormous blessing to have the capacity and desire to love. Love may not be all we need, contra John Lennon, but we also can't do without it. It's integral to who we are, and there are precious few things in the world more exhilarating, fulfilling, and meaningful than authentic love. It makes us feel whole, and this is no accident since it indicates that we are living an authentic humanity. But in a fallen world, this unquenchable need to love is also dangerous. Our craving for love makes us vulnerable to every perversion of love. All of us love something, usually multiple things. But the things we love, and the way in which we define love, are often polluted and out of step with the authentic love personified in Christ. The extent to which our love mirrors the love of Christ is the extent to which we can rejoice in the intimacy of our union with Christ and the perfect humanity he personifies. In particular, the sacrificial characteristic of Christ's love may be the aspect of perfect love that our culture most needs to rediscover and embrace.

When the culture says that sacrifice is bad, Christ's perfect example of love provides a very different paradigm. If Christians are supposed to be the transformers of culture, there is no shortage of areas in the culture that are in need of transformation. How we define love and what we love the most are certainly on the list. God has shown us what perfect love is, and he has given us the ability to love authentically as his images. What are we waiting for? The world needs to be changed, and we can change it if we not only radically profess Christ on our lips but radically live Christ in our hearts.