“Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
In 1884, Henry Drummond wrote a little book that has been widely circulated throughout the English-speaking world and translated into dozens of foreign languages. The title of the book: The Greatest Thing in the World. “Love,” said Drummond, basing his words on the 13th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, “is the most powerful force in the world.” But you say, “Hey! That was over a century ago. Love may have been the most powerful thing in the world then, but this is the twenty-first century!”
Today we think of power in concrete terms: Bombs that are so powerful that we measure their destructive energy in megatons. Ours is the age of space exploration—Saturn, Venus, Mars and Atlas rockets; chemical magic, powerful computers, intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with hydrogen warheads—missiles—smart missiles—so accurate they can land within a few meters of a target from 5,000 miles away.
Ours is an age of power—but what of the power of love? Many folks really wonder if love has any more power today. Newspapers are filled with stories of violence, sadism, rape, murder, perversion, and so forth. So, where does the power of love touch society today? Many individuals, some of whom are sincere and well‑meaning Christians, read chapters such as 1 Corinthians 13, and they wonder what has happened to the power of love. The power of guilt, tyranny, hate, lust, and murder—these we know. But what has happened to the simple power of love that binds up the broken‑hearted, soothes the scars of life, and gives us virtue, hope, and integrity?
Has the power of love become totally emasculated in our world? Is love only a poetic platitude left over from a previous century? Or does love yet play a stabilizing, life‑enriching part in this world?
To believers scattered throughout Asia Minor, the Apostle Paul penned some thoughts regarding the place of love in our lives. Actually, his words take the form of a prayer, as he asks God to let their lives be rooted and grounded in love so that they, with all Christians, could comprehend the height, the breadth, the length, and the width of God’s love and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge (Ephesians 3:18‑19a).
Paul states a simple fact: a person’s life can be firmly rooted and grounded in love. Now, Paul used two analogies—one from botany, the other from architecture. “Rooted in love” speaks of a life that is planted in the soil of love. “Grounded in love” speaks of the foundation of a person’s life, the superstructure of which rests on love.
In so many words, Paul is saying that your every action and thought should stem from a basic foundation of love which is the bedrock of your life. That love should play a major part in our lives has been the theme of psychologists and psychiatrists in recent days. Ashley Montagu, Pitirim Sorokin, Bertrand Russell and a host of others have gone on record saying love is the only force that will keep the world from destroying itself.
In no uncertain terms, Jesus commanded His followers to demonstrate love in their lives. He said, “You love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). For a moment, may I have access to your thoughts? You’re saying, “Hey, I agree with you. But how do you go about loving people that I really hate?” That’s when God’s love has to touch our hearts from the inside. And only then, can you love that way.
Resource reading: Psalm 107:33-43.
