Love In A Broken World 

   “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15: 12). 

   The meaning of love has been lost in a people concerned only with their own desires.  It has become something that comes and goes rather than remains.  Love now demands a return in many ways.  “I will love you if” has replaced “I will love you without condition.”  This is not the love that Christ modeled, and it is not the love we are to emulate.

   We hear the word love quite often, but rarely do we witness love as it is intended to be.  We see husbands and wives who don’t even seem to be friends.  Children are considered a burden rather than a blessing; many are murdered in the womb, robbed even of the chance of life and happiness.  Marriage has become an agreement that can be easily revoked for any or no reason rather than a life-long commitment.

   “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.  And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (2 Cor 13: 1 – 3)   If we don’t have love, any good we do is for naught.  Love is the key to the door to heaven and without it we will never enter God’s kingdom. 

   Our Lord gave His life for us because of His all-encompassing love for us.  He suffered rejection, betrayal, scourging, and the cross to redeem us from our sins.  Do we love Him in the same way?  Would we, like so many martyrs, give our life because of our love for Him?