Love is not what you may think it is

February is the time of year when my kids make Valentine's cards for their friends. My children enjoy making these cards with my wife, and take special care in doing so.

It’s always interesting to see what they receive from their friends in return. To be honest, I’ve never understood how a picture of the Incredible Hulk smashing a bad guy with a “Be My Valentine” caption communicates love and affection. 

Our society is confused about many things, but one area it’s confused above all the rest is the meaning of love. 

The pervasive thinking about love in our society boils down to the autonomous pursuit of pleasure. “I can do what I want, with who I want, when I want, as long as I don’t hurt anyone.” 

Now, the logical inconsistency with this line of thinking is obvious, but that’s a topic for another day.

Much of our society’s wrong thinking about love stems from placing the individual at the center of everything. It’s about my happiness, my pleasure, my desire, my fulfillment, my wellbeing, my body, my needs.

We could go on and on.

But that’s not how the Bible describes love, and quite frankly, when compared side by side, the Bible’s definition of love exposes our culture’s definition of love for what it is: a lie.

The greatest depiction of love according to the Bible is sacrifice. And the foremost demonstration of sacrificial love is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17)

Don’t believe our culture’s lie about love beginning with the self and then moving outward. Don’t believe the lie that love has no bounds or restraints or cost. 

As we are in the midst of the Lenten season approaching Easter Resurrection Sunday, I invite you to consider the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he laid down his life for sinners that all who would repent of their sins and believe on him would be reconciled to God and inherit eternal life

That’s a love you can trust. That’s a love you can depend on. That is the love of God.

Brandon Herron is the lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Sandpoint.