In The Margins

by Justin McGehee

Growing up, I often heard the phrase “love God and love others” from spiritual leaders in my life. Love was a quality I sought to display daily—and let’s be honest, it was a quality I hoped to receive. 

One of my favorite songwriters, Ben Rector, has a song titled, “We All Wanna Be Loved.” Here are a few lines from this song: “We just want love. There’s nothing above it. It’s what we need. It’s what we seek. And every move. Leads right back to. Our need for acceptance. Our fear of rejection… ‘cause we just wanna be loved.” 

Why are we so enamored with the idea of love? I think it’s because it is an incredible display of God’s character; and as image bearers of God, it is one we should seek to display as well. 

It is important to define the term love, because we use that word loosely. On a given day, I use the word in various ways. I love my wife and kids, and I also love pizza—two very different expressions of love. The New Testament has different Greek words used for love, and the one we’ll fixate on for this blog is agape love, which can be defined as selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love. 

Now, the culture around us will attempt to define love in different ways, too. “Love is love” is a phrase I’ve heard used, and it seeks to validate anyone’s own definition of love. This phrase misunderstands what love is—or better yet, who love is. 

We read in 1 John 4:8 where John tells us that “God is love.” John also writes in his gospel account, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Paul further clarifies that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

The self-sacrificing love of Jesus is truly remarkable and life changing. All other forms of love are mere shadows compared to the love of God. So, let me circle back to those lyrics by Rector: “We just want love. There’s nothing above it. It’s what we need.” We all want to be loved, and that desire often drives us; but if we cling to any other love other than the love of God, we will just be left wanting more. It is good that I love my family and even that I love a good slice of pizza, but my true hope and sustenance comes from the love of God. 

If this love resides in us, we cannot help but display it to the world around us. Jesus says in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our lives should be emphasizing the love of God—the outside world will know that we are His disciples when they see the way we love God and love others. This in turn will give us the opportunity to share the good news of God’s love to the world around us. 

Discussion questions:

-How does the non-Christian culture around us define love, and how does that differ from the love we see in the Bible? What dangers might arise when we let culture, rather than Scripture, define what love means?

-Read John 3:16 and Romans 5:8. How do these verses shape your understanding of God’s love for you personally?

-In what ways is agape love—selfless, sacrificial love—different from the way we naturally love others? How might loving others this way point them to Jesus?