What The World Needs Now

What the World Needs Now

A famous lyric from a 1965 Burt Bacharach song says, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of; what the world needs now is love, sweet love; No, not just for some, but for everyone.” Thirty-nine years later, I can honestly say the world still needs love, sweet love. It remains the only thing that there is just too little of. Relationships at all levels today are unraveling, suffering and eroding away because of the lack of this love sweet love. Half of all marriages and 39% of Baptist marriages end in divorce (Barna Research Group). My God help us! What is worse is that most relationships are approached today as if it is only a matter of time until they are dissolved. Pre-nuptial agreements are predicated upon this expectation. Commitment seems to be a dirty word or only defined to exist in the context of when everything goes well. Sadly, this lack of love sweet love has grieved the heart of God and caused loneliness and mental illness to reach an all time high in America. Although we live in the so-called communication and pharmacological age, we really do not communicate or relate to one another anymore.

The Lord can rightfully say to our disgrace, “Where is the love and care my people should have for one another? Where is your sacrifice in relationships that I so often use to bond you together as one? Where is the commitment you promised to each other and to me? You have failed to take note of my child, Ruth who displayed this sweet love for Naomi, her mother-in-law. She knew this love sweet love. Listen to her pledge to Naomi and learn from it the secret of my love: “…Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17)

I believe the Lord is troubled today by what He sees in the area of Christian relationships. He knows the love He offers is not just for some but for everyone. He knows you can personally know this love Ruth lived out in her day for love is eternal (1 Corinthians 13:13). Yet, many Christians ignore the application of the Word of God to their life. They never experience the deeper joy of love sweet love. Superficially, Christians may acknowledge love is from God and believe with head knowledge “God is Love” (1 John 4:7-8) but they do not understand how to make this love operational in their lives and daily live it out in their relationships. Therefore, mankind strives in his own power looking for love in all the wrong places -- finding pleasure perhaps for a season in sin but when the season passes emptiness is the one who wins.

So I encourage you in the Lord to stop, look and listen! Take to heart what I am about to say. Love demands it! Hear God’s truth and apply the principle Ruth understood and the Apostle Paul teaches in his epistle to the Ephesians. It will transform your relationships. The eleven words that follow contain the answer for what the world needs now: “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (5:21)

Contrary to the wisdom of your day, being subject to one another in the fear of Christ is the secret to finding this love sweet love the songwriter’s heart longs for. Submission to Christ and his order of things unleashes the love that escapes so many in failed relationships today. It is the love Ruth found against all odds in her relationship with Naomi because it flowed from her love relationship with Israel’s God. I encourage you in the love of Christ to apply these eleven words to your life and see what God will do (Jeremiah 33:3). I can assure you, it won’t be easy for the enemy always resists the application of God’s truth to your life. But as Pastor Adrian Rogers would say, “Love [Is] Worth Finding.” As your flesh wages war with your spirit, remember, “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) Subjection goes against the logic and will of human nature. The flesh is resistant to having another’s will impose upon it. Our carnal weapons are activated for battle and ready to defend against any attacker that encroaches upon our will. But God will give you the victory He has already won for you at the Cross and you will discover a love that abounds more and more.