Jesus says something: “If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.” He says, “Even as I abide in the Father’s love because I have kept his commandments.” In this culture, we don’t have a category for that. In other words, we need a radical reorientation of what love is. We need to look at the Bible and what the Bible says love is.
An Obsession with Love
People in our culture today love love. We have lots of song lyrics and movies that extol love and romantic endings. Our children pass out stale, heart-shaped candies on Valentine’s Day. You can justify anything in culture today by saying that’s loving or they love each other.
Love does kind of play the role of God in many ways. It justifies. It sets boundaries for us. People in America—in the West in general—love love. Some of their views of love seem to have the Bible in the background. There are good things in it, and that’s why it’s easy for us as Christians to adopt or imbibe our culture’s view of love.
The Rule of Love: How the Local Church Should Reflect God’s Love and Authority by Jonathan Leeman; used with permission.