Real Love on Display
Our Connect Group theme for the year reminds us to “Keep It Real!” This month we consider Real Love. The reason we must deal with this topic is because so many people have an inaccurate understanding of Real Love. Their definition is so far off that many people have never understood the “Real” meaning.
Real love is unreal for so many people. By this, I mean that people have been so damaged by the portrayal of love that they have experienced from others that they no longer think that real love exists. Wherefore there are people like the Jewish Pharisees, there you will find a poor portrayal of love masquerading as real love.
Jesus explained in Matthew 23 that these leaders were not worth emulating. Sure, they knew the law, but they did not follow what they required of others. They took advantage of their position and of the people whom they should have been leading. What should have been a display of leadership love was instead a display of selfish love, fearful love, and hypocritical love. Such displays leads people to think that real love is unreal.
Others consider real love to be unreal because they deny that ultimate good exists anyway. The Darwinian model of macroevolution cannot account for real love. These people have tossed out the only true source of real love. God called them “fools.” (Psalm 14:1-2).
Real love is surreal for many people. To say that something is surreal is to say that it has qualities of reality but not actual reality. It is a dreamlike state of perception. They see something but do not understand it and they cannot believe what they are seeing! It made no sense to the people of Jesus’ day how He could behave toward the lowest class of people the way He did! They could not understand it when He told them to “love your enemies.” (Matthew 5:44).
This was the attitude that He expected to permeate His disciples after He was returned to the Father. This was put on display in the events surrounding the writing of I Corinthians 5:1-8. The Corinthian church had a member that was living with his father’s wife. The church thought they were displaying the highest form of love by supporting the behavior. However, Paul corrected their misunderstanding telling them to discipline him so that he would realize he was wrong. When they did, Paul wrote to them not to be so harsh as never to speak to him again. They did what Paul commanded but then he needed to encourage to reaffirm their love to him and bring him back into fellowship (II Corinthians 2:4-8). How could anyone love like that? That is not real!
But, real love is a reality! I John 3:16 declares, “by this we know love…” The text continues to describe and define real love saying that it is selfless (I John 3:16), proactive (I John 3:17; 4:9-10), obvious (I John 3:17-18), genetic (I John 4:7-8), and fearless (I John 4:18). These words tell us why real love is a real draw! Jesus said to His disciples, “By this will all men know that you are My disciples if you have love one for another.” (John 13:35). Real love draws people to Christians who were drawn to Jesus by His example (John 6:44; 12:32). This completes the promise of God who said through the prophet Jeremiah, “With lovingkindness I have draw you.” (31:3). Those drawn to God by His love should draw others to God by their love—real love!
— Mike Johnson
