The Fab Four sang about it. In fact their words and music are immortalized on Oldies radio. And rightly so. The Beatles seemed to be on to something. “All you need is love,” they sang. And that appeared to be the right message for a hurt and frightened world. Love is all you need. It’s all we need right here. And God agrees.
How do we define love? Some see it as sentimental syrup – cupids and fluttering hearts. Love is also defined as physical attraction – how one responds to the form of another’s body. A lot of people see love as an emotion bound by stipulations and conditions – something that is not freely given, but tirelessly earned. God does not deny the necessity of love, but he has a different idea about love altogether. We will discuss this truth today: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE. 1) Love for the Truth, and 2) Love Expressed in Forgiveness.
1) Love for the Truth
At the turn of the century the world’s most distinguished astronomer was Sir Percival Lowell. He was esteemed for his study of the solar system and had a particular fascination with Mars. He was certain that there were canals on the surface of the Red Planet and that these canals were proof of intelligent life there. The rest of his life was spent squinting though a giant telescope in Arizona mapping the channels and canals he saw. He was so highly regarded that his teachings gained wide acceptance.
Since that time our space probes have orbited mars and even landed on its surface. The entire planet has been mapped and no one has seen even one canal. It is now believed that Percival Lowell had a rare eye disease, which is now called ‘Lowell’s syndrome’ and it causes a person to see the bulging blood vessels in their own eyeballs.
Humankind, from its limited perspective, has offered many error-filled ideas. This applies to our sensibility that we need love. Love is all we need. And God agrees, but he wants us to be careful where we place our focus. This applies to our Christian lives. St. John urges us in this matter: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” We need more than a vague burning in the cockles of our hearts. We need to have a love for the truth. The Bible reveals God’s truth to us concerning our Savior Jesus Christ.
How do we perceive Christ? Do we see him as he truly is, or do we only perceive him the way we want to? There is a great temptation for us to view Jesus the way our own sinful eyes would like. To be honest, our eyes have grown weary of viewing Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Instead, these eyes long to dismantle the historical doctrines of the faith. Jesus is no longer viewed as divine God but as superstitious folk hero. Our eyes grow tired of looking to Jesus as the Savior-God willing to lay down his very life for you and me. Instead we grow sleepy and bored of viewing Jesus’ death as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and we’re tempted to view as nothing more than last heroic effort of a misguided revolutionary.
John writes to the Church and warns them to refuse to believe every spirit, every teaching, that comes their way. As you scan the horizon in search of love and acceptance be careful where your focus lands. “Test the spirits,” the apostle says. What he means is that we need to look beneath the surface to find the source of what is being said. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t judge an idea by how logical it sounds, how fascinating it seems, or how it is presented with charisma and power - look beneath the surface. What is the spirit behind the words? What motivates that person to teach or confess the things he does? This is important for us to understand as Christians who profess faith in Christ.
John gives us a litmus test of sorts that we can perform, “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” We cannot dare to know true love without Christ. And so each week at church, men and women gather, sit quietly and hope for release from the guilt that gnaws at their soul. Each week, young people come to church looking for hope to hang onto in the midst of their struggles to stay away from the temptations that lay waiting for them around every corner. Each week, husbands and wives come looking for ways to reconcile. Each week, broken people come looking for strength to make it through another day since the death of their loved one.
And each week, our Savior reminds us that he is our one and only. He came into this world to save us from sin, death, and the devil. Christ Jesus came in the flesh to earn our salvation. This is the truth the Bible proclaims, and only this truth can focus our eyes on Christ because this truth is from the Sprit of God. The Holy Spirit is the one who gets beneath the surface and takes us to the source of real love. He reminds us of our Savior who lived, died, and rose again for us. We have been given a new perspective. We don’t have a shallow, vague concept of love. We have the ultimate source of love as it is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. Christ came in the flesh to save sinners! Let us hold on to what we teach and proclaim!
The Bible is not a self-help book that offers advice in maximizing your wealth, getting the most out of your marriage, or being a powerful parent in 21st century. The Bible is God’s “love letter” to a sinful race. In every way it focuses our attention on God’s Son, whom he sent to save us from our sins and failures.
2) Love Expressed in Forgiveness
Don’t lose your perspective. When we are tempted to lose perspective on Christ, our Savior, then we lose focus of ourselves. We fail to see the seriousness of sin in our lives. Instead, we’re tempted to see sin as simply a genetic predisposition or a moral glitch that can be overcome through technological advances and higher education.
“All you need is love,” the world around us says. And our eyes are filled with scenes of abuses and misuses; people who tarnish God’s good gifts of sexual relationships and marriage, people who abuse their own bodies or the bodies of others for their own self-gratification. And all of it is deemed as “love.”
Then there are those times when we think love is a hot air balloon. If you want to control it you need to tie it off and weigh it down. We tie conditions and stipulation to our love. We guard it. We don’t want to give it away too freely. We treat our spouse with contempt and scorn. We ridicule and abuse one another. We even mistreat God. We claim to love him and that we want to support his kingdom, and yet, we’re delinquent in paying our bills or we bring God a pittance of an offering to his house. If I profess that Jesus is my Lord and King and yet speak lies, harbor resentment, refuse to forgive, steal, slander, gossip, and look down upon others, then I am a false prophet. I certainly don’t deserve God’s love.
Again, this is why God’s love is so amazing. John explains it. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” All you need is love – God’s love – as it is expressed through forgiveness. God forgives the crumby parents in our midst. He forgives the abusive spouses. He forgives our drunkenness. He forgives our lack of self-control. God forgives our jealousy and impatience. He forgives our prejudice and hatred. He forgives our pride and arrogance. He forgives our laziness. He forgives our foul language. He forgives us of our self-pity and despair. He forgives our worry and fear.
I hope you see that God has forgiven you! All you need is love. And God has showered it on you; forgiving all the times we lose focus and search for true love where it doesn’t exist. Forgiveness changes our focus and perspective of who we are.
A husband and wife were invited to a party one Friday night, and the husband made a complete fool of himself. He was loud and obnoxious. He made crude jokes and embarrassed his wife. The next day he felt terrible for his actions. He begged his wife to forgive him, “I do, honey,” she promised. But the next few months, whenever something came up that displeased or set-off the wife, she would bring up the party incident. “I thought you forgave me?” the man asked. “Darling, I did forgive you – I just don’t want you to forget it,” she replied.
“And all you need is love!” It’s hard to love one another when we take our focus off of Christ Jesus. Understand we are all sinners. We are all crass, loud, slobs in God’s eyes. There’s no getting out of it. No pointing fingers at someone else. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet, God forgives us. Jesus has come in the flesh and has proven God’s love to be genuine. And the Holy Spirit has led us to trust and believe this to be the truth. God’s Word says so!
When we realize that God forgives us, then we find the power to forgive one another. Cherish the treasure of God’s love – forgiveness. It’s nothing to hold a grudge. It’s easy to be selfish in your justice and to be unforgiving. But you’re being unfair to yourself. The only way to heal the pain that will not heal, the only way to mend unfixable hearts is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness stops the reruns of pain. Forgiveness heals your memory because it changes your perspective and vision.
Instead of focusing on your hurt and resentment, focus on Christ Jesus who loves you. Focus on God almighty who smiles to call you his child. God has released you and me from all wrong. He’s set us free.
That’s the only love we need. And it is ours as we focus on God’s Word. God’s forgiveness is ours as we continue to come to worship and praise him. His forgiveness is ours as we continue to trust him. Only then do we find the strength and desire to forgive others as we’re forgiven. As God leads us to forgive, we set the guilty free. But most often we find that the prisoners we set free are really ourselves.
“All you need is love.” John, Paul, George, and Ringo sang about it. And they were awarded Golden records and Grammies. You may never win a Grammy, but that doesn’t matter. You have more. You have been given a heart of gold – a heart decorated with the love of Christ. And that’s all the love you’ll ever need. Amen.
