In 1985, Whitney Houston’s remake of “The Greatest Love of All” became an overnight success. It’s a beautiful song, with a lovely melody, positive lyrics, and of course Whitney’s stellar vocals made it magical. I’ve always liked this song, perhaps you have as well. Yet, the message it conveys of self-love being the greatest of all loves is actually not true. At least not from a biblical perspective. Let me explain.

A Biblical Perspective

The Bible teaches that love comes from God (I John 7:8), that His love is perfect (John 4:8), and that the greatest of all loves is the one He has for all people. Additionally, we are commanded to love God with our entire being. Why? Well, for starters because He is God, He is good, and He is worthy of our love. But also, it is only by loving Him first and fully that we can understand the extreme measure of His love for us, and all people. This knowledge then equips us to see ourselves as He sees us, as people of value and great worth. When we understand this, we are made confident in His love, empowering us to love others well, with the greatest of all loves.

Loving God First

The second part of God’s greatest commandment is loving others. Yet, the only way to accomplish this is by loving God first. When we get this out of order, we’re out of alignment with God, and the result is our trying to do something, quite frankly we can’t do on our own, at least not consistently, selflessly or sacrificially. The truth is by nature we are selfish and self-centered. And because of this our love relationship with God must be our first priority. In their book Vertical Marriage, authors Dave and Anne Wilson share the key ingredient to successfully loving your spouse is “going vertical” with God. The Wilsons believe pursuing God first and foremost is how to experience a loving marriage relationship. This biblically-founded principle is true for every relationship. God must be first.

Love Described

I think we’d all agree that love is a challenging word to adequately describe. Most commonly however, it is described as a feeling or an emotion. And while there is a measure of truth in these descriptions, love is vastly more than this. What brings further confusion to this word is that it’s used to describe things we enjoy like ice cream, sunny days, or a favorite restaurant, diminishing the weight of its meaning. Yet the Bible speaks of a completely different kind of love that is not based on emotions or personal preferences. This highest form of love, known as agape love, is the love God has for all people. The apostle Paul adequately and eloquently describes this greatest of all loves in his famous love chapter, I Corinthians 13. If it’s been a while since you’ve read this chapter, or if you’ve never read it all, perhaps take some time to read it today. I guarantee you’ll be edified and encouraged!

Love Made Visible and Tangible

God knew we’d struggle to understand and receive His great love. So, to clear up any confusion, He sent Jesus as the representative of His love. Jesus was in fact God’s love wrapped in a Person. By reading the gospels we can clearly see what love looks like. Love looks like forgiveness. Love looks like mercy and compassion. Love looks like healing and hope. And most significantly love looks like the Cross, as true love is demonstrative, sacrificial, and costly. The apostle John sums it up beautifully in this way, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that [he] loved us and sent [Jesus] as [a]…sacrifice for our sins” (I John 4:10).

This is truly the greatest of all loves. It is limitless, holy, perfect, and true. It is persistent, consistent, constant, and unfailing. It is pursuing and it is relentless. And this my friends, is precisely the love God has for all people, people just like us.

Look for next week’s post from guest blogger, Court Abbott, on loving your neighbor.

Pray

Holy Father, thank you for showing me what love looks and acts like. I am in awe of your great love for me and all people. Cause me to see myself as you see me, as a person of value and great worth. Empower me I pray to love others the same way you love me, consistently, unconditionally and sacrificially. I pray this in Jesus’ Name, amen.

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Question of the Week

How would you describe what love truly is in your own words? Be specific.

Be courageous and share your responses with the Grace Notes for You community HERE!