Is Love Really All We Need?

April 17, 2008 — 2 Comments


“So it’s not surprising that the world would think that “all we need is love,” and we can do without the doctrine, since the world thinks it can do without Christ. Doctrine is where the religions most obviously part ways. Doctrine is where things get interesting-and dangerous. As the playwright Dorothy Sayers said, doctrine isn’t the dull part of Christianity, rather, “The doctrine is the drama.” Jesus was not revolutionary because he said we should love God and each other. Moses said that first. So did Buddha, Confucius, and countless other religious leaders we’ve never heard of. Madonna, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Dali Lama, and probably a lot of Christian leaders will tell us that the point of religion is to get us to love each other. “God loves you” doesn’t stir the world’s opposition. However, start talking about God’s absolute authority, holiness, wrath, and righteousness, original sin, Christ’s substitutionary atonement, justification apart from works, the necessity of new birth, repentance, baptism, Communion, and the future judgment, and the mood in the room changes considerably. If postmodernism is simply a revival of modern romanticism (experience as sovereign), then it’s not very postmodern after all.”

Stumbled upon here, quoted originally from here.

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Jonathan Sherwin

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Jonathan likes to write on the church, philosophy, culture and the mix of all three. A graduate of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, Jonathan lives and works in Oxford.
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  • Donuts

    One of the biggest problems we have in the English laguage is the word “love” itself. It has many connotations but the love that God talks about is “agape” meaning unconditional love given without any expectation of return or requitement. It is summed up in 1 Cor 13 and in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s a love that keeps giving even when dismissed, scorned, mocked and spat at. That is the love that world really does need but it can only come form God, flowing through us as we walk in His love. Jesus said that to love God with all our heart mind soul and strength and then to love our neighbour as our self fulfills the law. If you have this God love then you won’t want to break any of the commandemnts, and thereby you fulfill the law. But even if we break the law, God still loves us. God is love. It’s His nature. Man’s love is selfish at best.

  • Jonathan Sherwin

    Agape love … probably one of the hardest concepts for me to grasp, if I’m honest. It can only be given when it has been received and it can only be received from God – as you said.

    As for the sin thing, I’ve been thinking about this. If I were to truly understand God’s love then I would truly understand sin and thus be completely repulsed by it. The more beautiful God is to me the uglier sin is. I suppose that is why it is a very good thing to meditate on God’s character i.e. God is love.

    Isn’t that just an incredible statement?