The Language of Love

In my last blog I talked about being multilingual. I didn’t have room to talk about the language of love, which we all can learn to speak. Even without words, we can understand when love is spoken.

Have you ever heard a story about two people who fell in love without being able to speak each other’s language? They were attracted to each other and a beautiful love relationship resulted by reading each other’s body language.

God, who is Love, has most clearly spoken to us through His Son, Jesus. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”, the Scripture tells us (John 15:13). Jesus demonstrated exactly that. And His death wasn’t the end of what he did for us, because He rose again and lives in Heaven to intercede on our behalf. “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34).

Jesus quoted the Old Testament as He challenged His followers to “ ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). The fact is that we aren’t capable of loving to that extent without help from God Himself. “We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). Christ demonstrated love and gave us the Spirit to teach us how to love. How are you doing at learning to speak that language?

We learn some things the hard way. I thought I knew all about love and wanted to share all that I had learned with a child who didn’t have a loving family. When we adopted our young son, I found out that I still had a lot to learn about God’s kind of love. It’s hard to keep loving when the child you welcomed into your home is so frustrated that he spews out hatred. But Jesus showed us how to react to that. He loved those who rejected Him and even forgave those who killed Him. Fortunately, after demonstrating our love over the years, our son came to love us very much. That’s the power of God at work.

I’m attaching a song medley that our children recorded many years ago when we were traveling in an itinerant ministry. It doesn’t get much simpler, yet more profound than this: “Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so.” Isn’t it great that we can still listen to the songs from years ago? And does the challenge of love ever end?

“Jesus Loves Me Medley” from “Listen”