What Love Is

Read John 14.

"I wanna know what love is," sang the band Foreigner in 1984. That song was a number one hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It is their biggest hit to date, and I suspect part of the reason is because that's a question, a desire we all have. We want to know what love is, and we especially want to know in an age that increasingly confuses love with sex or warm feelings or a Hallmark movie (where everything wraps up happily in 2 hours). Deep down inside, we know that all of those things may or should contain some aspect of love, but we know that's not the whole story.

The human race since its beginning has been longing to have the answer to the question Foreigner asked musically, and yet the one who created the stars, the planets, the moon and the sun already has given us the answer. In the Old Testament, from the beginning, God called the people to show their love of him by living the way he asked them to live. "Love" was spelled "obey." In Eden, Adam and Eve had one job: don't eat from this particular tree. Show your love for me by living this way. And they couldn't do it.

Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, we see the same pattern. God calls the people to live a particular way, and the people decide they have a better idea. Never mind the fact that God designed this world and this life—we think we've got it all figured out. So the people are given commands and they promptly break those commands. God's heart breaks, and through the prophets he calls them back: to love, to obedience. Because love is spelled "obey."

On his last night with his disciples, just before it gets really rough, Jesus spends some time in an upper room with his twelve closest friends. By chapter 14, Judas has left to sell Jesus out, and so the time he has with them is getting short. The soldiers are coming for him. What is it he wants these friends, these disciples to know? The same message God has been giving since the beginning: love is spelled "obey." Or, as Jesus puts it, "If you love me, keep my commands" (14:15).

But, we say, that sounds like legalism, like just following the rules. However, when you love someone, don't you want to live in a way that pleases them? Those of us who are married find that our lives are different because we want to live in such a way that we get along with the one we love. We do certain things because we know it will make the one we love smile. Obedience isn't about the rules; it's about a love response to the one who has done so much for us. Obedience to Jesus' commands is a way of demonstrating our love for him. We don't obey because we have to; we obey because we want to, because we love Jesus.

"I wanna know what love is." Jesus says, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching" (14:23). It's as simple—and as all-consuming—as that.