A Saturday Evening Post

Paul McCartney wondered what was wrong with the fact that , ‘Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs.’ Looking at some of those songs, it’s obvious that the perception of love is pretty messed up.

Michael Bolton sang ‘I Said I love You (But I Lied)‘. Celine Dion voiced a popular opinion in ‘Let Your Heart Decide’, Phil Collins set the bar high with ‘Gimme Just One More Night’, and the always creepy Police sang ‘Every breath You Take‘ (I’ll be watching you). Tina Turner voiced the philosophy of the last few generations, when she asked ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’

More than a collection of ‘silly love songs, these are the ideas that form the standards of so many. 35% of parents are ‘cohabitating’ (doesn’t that phrase make it sound almost acceptable?) compared to 20% in 1997. On average, 75% of people who claim to be Christian believe living together before marriage is acceptable. When we look at society and note the decline, it is important that we observe that these statistics reflect the attitudes of those who claim to be the most moral among us.

We place plenty of value on love. According to the national retail federation, worldwide, people will spend a total of 18 billion dollars on flowers over the course of 2023. In America, alone, including chocolate, gifts, dinner, and greeting cards. etc., 24 billion was spent on Valentine’s Day last year. To put this in perspective, Out of 227 countries in the world (according to Wikipedia), 161 have smaller national budgets than the amount of money Americans spent on Valentine’s Day.

Redefine love.

If you stopped someone on the street; asked them to define love, you would probably be surprised how many different responses you would get. From the superficial “feeling of attraction,” to the more substantial “putting others needs above your own.” and all points in between.

Webster’s defines love as “a strong affection, based on kinship or personal ties.”

The written language of the Chinese has always fascinated me. The Chinese system of character’s is one of the earliest written languages in the world. Similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, they are depictions of things, sometimes several characters are joined together to form a complex concept. I could go on for pages and pages about the different Chinese characters, but I would like to look at just one: ‘ai’ (love).

The modern symbol has been simplified, but the traditional Chinese symbol for love can be divided into 4 parts. From top down, the character is made from:

The claw (google translate) or hand:

A cover

The heart

Friend

n Chinese tradition, love is a treasure; the hand removes the cover from the heart and develops a friendship with the loved one. We are definitely improving from rock band definitions of love.

This bears a striking resemblance to Revelation 3:20:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.“

This is a great definition of friendship, but God offers better definitions of love.

Anyone who does not love, does not know God, because God is love.  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God – 1 John 4:7,8

God says that He is Love. He doesn’t define that here, but at least we’re on the right track.

Like the Chinese character, some of us have that lid screwed down on our hearts pretty tightly. For one reason or another, our hearts have been hurt. The scars are deep, and we would rather cover it up, than let God open our hearts and let Him in. God had to do something pretty dramatic to open our heart

By this we know love: that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
– 1 John 3:16

  In Russian the word for relationship is the same word as attitude. When you have a relationship, you literally have ‘an attitude’ with that person. God’s attitude toward us is love. We usually set temporary expectations of love. This identifies love as a surface, superficial emotion, but God’s attitude was deep, and so it came with a profound show of affection. did you hear the second part?

“and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers”

I might never be called on to physically die for another person, but I can still lay down my life in a symbolic sense. I can sacrifice my ‘freedom’ to provide a stable home for a spouse and child. I can give up the selfish ideas that love is only about the pleasure I receive.

By all means, buy (or eat) the chocolate. Sing the silly love songs, but remember that so much more is available for you because love has everything to do with it.