Love... Period

1 John 4:7-11
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God because GOD IS LOVE (emphasis added). This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Human beings love choice.  We love to have 15 options on a menu at a fast food restaurant. We love to have a choice of countless colors for our iPod case.  Customization and uniqueness are priceless in our culture here in America.  Here's the problem though: for Christians, we don't have as much choice as we would like.  John's words above, which reminds me much of another famous passage penned by the Beloved Apostle (ever heard of John 3:16?), do not give us an option.  His first letter to the Church is full of statements that should make all of us uncomfortable.  We want to be able to decide who we love based on how they treat us or how they look or act.  John, who is merely echoing his Savior, is quite stern about the fact that we MUST love others if we claim to be in Christ. 

Quick question: What is love?  Hollywood has romanticized it.  High School kids mistake it for their hormones (sorry guys...).  And politicians... well, you get my point.  But the biblical model of love is sacrifice and servant-hood.  If God is love, and God is made known to us through Christ, then this fact must be evident.  The ultimate example of love was Jesus.  He is love. He put others before himself. His example of washing his disciples' feet at the Last Supper showed how low he was willing to go to prove his love.  As Hebrews 12 tells us, for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross on our behalf.  If that all wasn't good enough, he sent the Holy Spirit to us to guide, direct, empower, and convict us. What else do we want?

But we are willing to compromise our love. If someone in the church gets in our way, we reason that it is for the betterment of everyone that we don't love them.  If they harm or wrong us, we lash out in rage.  We limit our love, while Christ's love for us is unlimited.  And John doesn't give us a choice.  We either love or we don't.  We either put others before ourselves or we don't.  I believe in life, there are some gray areas.  This is not one of them.  God IS love.  Love is who God is.  He embodies and personifies love.  Love is defined by God.  And he clearly tells us that we must love.  In fact, Jesus tells us that it is our love FOR ONE ANOTHER that will identify us as his disciples (John 13:35).  This declaration comes right after Jesus washed his disciples' feet. So the question is not whether or not we are to love, who we are to love, or even how we are to love. It is if we will love. Will we simply feel some "emotion" towards others, or will we go out of our way to sacrifice for them?  Will we truly be patient, kind, gentle, selfless, humble, sacrificial, desiring truth, or not?  It really is simple. We must love... period.