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I’ve always enjoyed the folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary. Like many couples married in the late 70s, my wife and I had Paul Stookey’s composition, “The Wedding Song,” sung at our wedding. The song hints at Christ's union between man and woman. Stookey has dabbled in Christian music but found evangelical Christianity “too limiting.” I read through his website’s “faith” section.[1] His website explains his view of faith, which proclaims all religions lead to God (one light, many candles). After years of exploring his beliefs, he decided that the Divine is love. He asserts that love as a concept, action, feeling, objective, or whatever form it may take, is God. God is not a person, Creator, Judge, Savior, or omniscient being. Love is God, not God is love. Yes, there is a difference.
If love is god
Xenophanes of Colophon was a philosopher and poet who lived in the ancient Greek world during the early 5th century BC. He wrote that "man has created God in his own image." Humankind needs God, whether he accepts the God of the Bible or "creates" one that is more suitable to his taste. Xenophanes was correct, human beings yearn to satisfy the "God knowledge" already written on their hearts. When you are hungry, you have a choice: eat healthily or eat junk. Junk is tastier and more satisfying, filling the craving for a while. When you are hungry for God, you have a choice: study truth or seek a cheap replacement, which is more satisfying because it fills the self-centered cravings.
Love is a popular topic. It is the one thing that everyone can agree on as the solution to all our problems. If love is the only answer and solves everything, why not make it a god, as Paul Stookey has? The practice and promotion of love is far less divisive and demanding than an actual living God. We cannot determine which God is true, so why try? Love is the answer. Let us all worship and adore the concept of love toward one another. Put love in charge and watch the world change. Love won't demand forsaking oneself or submission to divine decrees. We can all practice love as we see fit. When kindness is king, hate disappears, doesn't it? No, human love is too often a means to an end, a self-centered end. Love, when limited by human values, is too self-serving. Even our best efforts to love and serve others fail to solve all our problems. If love is to be god, we need better love.
If God is love
If God is love, he sets the perfect standard for love that truly changes. His love is sacrificial, unconditional, and selfless. God is perfect, so his love is perfect. His love sets the standard of love that humankind cannot achieve without his Spirit at work. Because God is love, love is far more than a human concept, action, feeling, objective, or any imperfect form it may take. Since God is love, it is personal. He enables it; he is the sole source of perfect love. God’s love is unchanging and eternal. His love does something that the ambiguous human, self-centered emotion we call love could never do. His perfect love flows out of him, permeating all he does. It is the reason he does all he does. He does not keep this priceless commodity to himself but freely pours it into and through all who are born of God. To proclaim man’s love as a deity is idolatry. Man creates God in the image he wants, no matter how deficient. But to accept that God is love gives us the ability to know his great care for us and our ability to love others in a godly way.
John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Meditation Points
In what ways is God’s love better than humanity’s love?
Why is “love” so sought after by the world?
How has God’s love changed you?
Humanity’s love is portrayed as universal and unconditional but it’s really not. If we are pressed, our conditions on love will become apparent.
The idea that we can “out-love” God is preposterous. His love is actually beyond our comprehension. “While we were sinners, Christ died for us.”