“All you need is love,” sang the Beatles and many others over the years.
Love might just be all we need, but this also prompts another question, which philosophers have pondered in song:
What Is Love?
I think the most compelling definition of love is the giving of oneself for another. In short, love is true sacrifice, where the good of another is elevated above one’s own needs.
What I don’t mean is this:
When we initially try to love and give of ourselves, we find it is impossible. As C.S. Lewis puts it:
“In the end, you will either give up trying to be good, or else become one of those people who, as they say, “lives for others” but always in a discontented, grumbling way – always wondering why the others do not notice anymore, and always making a martyr of yourself. And once you have become that you will be a far greater pest to anyone who has to live with you than you would have been if you had remained frankly selfish.”
C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity
Love is not meant to be prideful. It is not meant to direct attention to itself, saying “look how loving I am, everyone!”
And yet, when we start out trying to love others, I think that is a natural stage in our development, because the reality is we still need to be loved and admired. If we are constantly doing for others, we lose touch with our own needs and then start trying to solicit the love we need from others (manipulation, anyone?).
So, how do we get beyond this stage?
The Answer Is in the Christmas Story
We are in a pinch, because we are called to love others, yet we need love, too.
There is no guarantee that if we love others, they will love us. Or, if they do, we might question whether their love is genuine or a mere echo of the love we have given them.
I think the end of the book of I John sums up how God has solved these problems for us:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
I John 4:7-12
- God sent his Son Jesus into the world as an act of love.
- God’s love was further demonstrated when Jesus died to take away our sin.
- Because we have already received this great gift of love from God (redemption and restoration to a right relationship with Him), we should love others sacrificially, too.
- Then, we see the love of God in a more tangible way. We can love one another first, just as God did for us.
This brings me to the Christmas story.
God sent Jesus as a vulnerable little baby boy as an act of love. God sent one who was holy in among sinners, who would treat him in the most unloving ways.
God’s love is powerful, make no mistake. It overcame generations of disobedient, unloving people. His love is revolutionary, and can start something new in the human heart, that we don’t get from other humans. His love is pure and good. That is a gift we should celebrate and pass on to others this Christmas!
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