Love is Not The Answer When It is Generic

The riots are again breaking out across the country.  Protesters, angry about racial disparities, are making their voices heard.  While many are peacefully gathering, others are not.  What is to be done?  I heard it again yesterday: Love is the answer.  Is it though? 

Let’s try that type of answer to other problems. 

I have transportation problems.  Wheels are the answer. 

I have appendicitis.  Doctors are the answer.

I am poor.  Money is the answer. 

The problem with all of these answers is not just that they are simplistic.  It is that they are so simplistic that they can actually qualify as wrong depending on the situation.  Wheels are not the answer if your transportation problem is fuel shortages.  A doctor can’t help with appendicitis if he is a neurosurgeon.  Money is not the answer for someone who is poor because of addiction.  All of those answers touched on something that will somehow be a factor to a solution, but they were so woefully deficient they were no practical good.  

To say love is the answer is to assume people know what love is, how love behaves, and what goals love aims for.  Those are assumptions that you cannot afford to make. If someone thinks that love is primarily a deep emotional connection that operates with passion for the purpose of happiness and fulfillment, they will have very specific ideas when the “love is the answer” solution is voiced.  

Christians need to get a firm biblical grip on what love is so that we are not led astray into worldly ideas about loving actions.  The world will at times use the same words as Christians do, but that does not mean they are showing love.  True biblical love will do the following: 

• Love God first and above all (Dt. 6:5; Matt. 22:37)
• Obey God’s commands (1 Jn. 5:1; 2 Jn.6)
• Depend upon Spirit empowerment for its presence and exercise (Matt. 7:7-12)
• Sacrificially serve others before self (Jn. 15:13)
• Not be partial (James 2:1-4)
• Prioritize the truth and not compromise it (1 Cor. 13:6)
• Speaks the truth wisely, gently, boldly and clearly (Eph. 4:15)
• Forbears without being offended (Eph. 4:2)
• Willing to endure mistreatment and suffer a loss ( Matt. 5:39-42; 1 Cor. 6:7)
• Assume the best until more evidence is received (1 Cor. 13:7)

There is more that could be added, but to assume that people have these biblical features of love in mind is to assume far too much. Worldly notions are too rampant, too dominating, and too well resourced in the arts and entertainment industry for us to think they don’t hold sway over someone else’s thinking. 

Love is not generic, broad and ambiguous.  Love always must be defined biblically.  Love always deals in specifics.  Love always is applied with wisdom to individual situations.  Jesus knows his sheep by name, and if you are going to love people you need to know their name and their situation.  Let’s abandon the platitudes and love with a biblical, Christ-like, specific, knowledgeable love.