Why Not's of Adventism: Why Not Love?

Malcolm Salunga Douglas
(Convergence)

Love… in its various forms, facets and features is without question one of the most interesting words every to be used by mere humans. We think we have it, own it, use it, abuse it, and loose it. But if I may state, love is not a thing, nor just a principle – love is a being. The Bible says that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). And the Bible says that if we do not love, we do not know God; for the only way to know God is to love (1 John 4:7). Let me thus ask this double meaning question, do you love? Meaning do you love people and do you know God?

Sometimes it is best to understand something, when it is established as what it is not. Let us try this method for just a moment – love does not envy, is not rash, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, it does not fail, and it does not vanish away (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

Love rather, by biblical definition, suffers, is kind, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails, but it abides (1 Cor. 13:4, 6-8, 13). Even in simple survey, one can easily see that the Bible states emphatically what love is not, more then what love actually is.

Knowing therefore what love is, let me ask the question, as I ask myself, do you and I love? Do we rejoice in the truth? Are we willing to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things for Christ and His word? For love will never fail us, and it promises to abide – the question becomes harder to answer, harder to fathom, but it is the truth and it is the test – will we love to the end? Will our love endure?

When times get tough, when things all around seem so dark and grime, will we still stand so firm? Will we see still preach, teach, and have the same urgency as we do? The truth is, if we do not have these qualities interwoven into our lives today, will we begin to have them tomorrow? Will our love for God test persecution? Who or what will separate you or I “from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” (Rom. 8:35)? What will drive you to deny the Lord? Would you still love God if your closest one was taken from you? Will you still love God if your closest one was found cheating on you? Would you still love God? Will you still love God?

In reality, the question is not asked by myself, but by Christ himself. In the last chapter of that last gospel, the book of John, three times Christ asks Peter, “Lovest thou me” (John 21:15, 16, 17)?” He’s asking, “Do you love me?” Peter actually responds, “Of course, Lord: you know that I love you.” But the third time he was grieved, because he had asked him a third time (the same amount of times that he denied his Lord). But let us take a quick look in what the original conversation went like. The word for “love” actually changes from agapas (a pure, unselfish love) to phileis (a loyal, and sometimes intellectual love). Going more like: “Do you agape [purely, unselfishingly] me?” Peter responding, “Oh, Lord, of course I Phileo [loyally love] you. “Do you agape [purely, unselfishingly] me?” “Oh, Lord, of course I Phileo [loyally love] you.” “Do you Phileo [loyally love] me?” “Lord, you know all things, you know I Phileo [loyally love] you.” There is a bit of a difference.

Thus, let me ask, do you Phileo [loyally love] Christ? Or do you agape [purely, unselfishingly] love Christ? If you do not, or have not, then you like myself, have at times fallen short. But now it is time that we rise. Let us do as Christ has instructed Peter to do, Feed his sheep (John 21:15, 16, 17) and follow him (vs. 19). In other words, do the work of the Lord and continue to follow him. It is time that we rise “higher than the highest human thought can reach.” This is God’s ideal for us. “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). Let us love the Lord with not just our minds, but with our whole being – let us love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, might/strength, and mind (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). Then let us love our neighbor as ourselves. As the theological implications of this go much deeper, the truth is, the closer we draw to God, the closer we will become with one another – now, that is great relationships advice.

Will you love God? Then, why not love him who first loved you? Why not?

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).