“How does St. Paul say it?
Love is not jealous, rude, or boastful. Love does not insist on its own way. Love is unselfish, sacrificial, kind and just.
Love seeks the good and the well-being of the other. Love makes room and space for the other to be. (See 1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
This love, this is the way of Jesus. And it’s game changer.
Imagine our homes and families when this way of love is the way. Imagine our neighborhoods and communities when love is the way. Imagine our governments and countries when love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when this love is the way. Imagine our world when love is the way.
No child would go to bed hungry in such a world as that. Poverty would become history in such a world as that. The earth would be as a sanctuary in such a world as that.
We would treat one another as children of God, regardless of differences. We would learn how to lay our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more.
There would be a new heaven, a new earth, a new world. A new and beautiful human family.
The very dream of God.
Love is strong as death. It’s flashes are flashes of fire. Many waters cannot quench love.”
As the Beatles so eloquently put it:
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
OK. The dude in the funny outfit didn’t start singing a Beatles song. But he totally screws things up, turning “God is love” into “Love is God.”
As CS Lewis put it: “We may give our human loves the unconditional allegiance which we owe only to God. They they become gods: then they become demons. Then they will destroy us, and also destroy themselves. For natural loves that are allowed to become gods do not remain loves. They are still called so, but can become in fact complicated forms of hatred...
...St. John’s saying that God is love has long been balanced in my mind against the remark of a modern author (M. Denis de Rougemont) that “love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god”; which of course can be re-stated in the form “begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god”. This balance seems to me an indispensable safeguard. If we ignore it the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God.”
Another writer put it this way:
A fourth misunderstanding about love is the confusion between “God is love” and “love is God.” The worship of love instead of the worship of God involves two deadly mistakes. First it uses the word God only as another word for love. God is thought of as a force or energy rather than as a person. Second, it divinizes the love we already know instead of showing us a love we don’t know.
To understand this point, consider that “A is B” does not mean the same as “A equals B.” If A = B, then B = A, but if A is B, that does not mean that B is A. “That house is wood” does not mean “wood is that house.” “An angel is spirit” does not mean the same as “spirit is an angel.” When we say “A is B”, we begin with a subject, A, that we assume our hearer already knows, and then we add a new predicate to it. “Mother is sick” means “You know mother well, let me tell you something you don’t know about her: she’s sick.”
So “God is love” means “Let me tell you something new about the God you know: he is essential love, made of love, through and through.” But “Love is God” means “Let me tell you something about the love you already know, your own human love: that is God. That is the ultimate reality. That is as far as anything can ever go. Seek no further for God.”
In other words, “God is love” is the profoundest thing we have ever heard. But “love is God” is deadly nonsense.
Insightful observation, thanks.
Your post is an excellent explanation.
I thought he might start singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at one point there. His self-indulgence made me skeeve.
“So “God is love” means “Let me tell you something new about the God you know: he is essential love, made of love, through and through.” But “Love is God” means “Let me tell you something about the love you already know, your own human love: that is God. That is the ultimate reality. That is as far as anything can ever go. Seek no further for God.”
In other words, “God is love” is the profoundest thing we have ever heard. But “love is God” is deadly nonsense.”
Interesting thesis, and I largely agree even though I come from the love is God camp.
However, to explain that following the house analogy, “This house is wood” should not be followed by “Wood is the house”, but rather that “wood is part of the house, wood is from the house”. Thus, love is a part of God and from God.
Interesting. I think I will stop saying love is God, as it can be misunderstood and partly idolitry.
How does, “Love is Godly” sound?