It is interesting to watch big celebrities pull together to try to positively impact the world after tremendous catastrophes, such as Orlando or Dallas. Recently, Jennifer Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda released the song "Love Make the World Go Round," a wonderful song that donates all of its proceeds to the victims of the Orlando massacre.
I support the song and its message; what the world needs right now is love. And yet, I have a feeling J-Lo's idea of love and my idea of love are vastly differently.
What is love? "A call to action", as the song says? Is love encouragement? Is love holding a spouse's hand at the end of a long day? Is love a kiss on the lips, is love acceptance, sacrifice, or support?
Yes, all of these things branch off from love, they are all direct side effects. But to offer so simply the exact definition of love, I would say that love is Christ. 1 John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because GOD IS LOVE."
Jennifer Lopez says in her interview with the TODAY show that the world needs to realize that "the message of love really is the answer, and that's what really matters, and that's what makes the world go 'round." She couldn't be more right, for if God and love are perfectly synonymous as the Bible tells us, then Jennifer is basically calling for God to be the answer, to be what matters.
Yet, after all of this, I doubt J-Lo is saying what I am saying. There is a fundamental misunderstanding to the word "love." That's why nothing seems to be getting fixed. That's why, as much as everyone tries to love each other, we always fall short. We try our best to love out of our own strength, but the truth of the matter is, we are fallen. We cannot love so purely, so simply, so acceptingly. We cannot love to the extremity that the world needs.
We think the side effect of love is the antidote, but it's not. The antidote is Christ. Christ, who is love, is the only answer. The only way we can cure anything is if we treat it directly, with the correct medicine. The only way we can truly change the world is if we medicate it with Christ.
Do we love while doing this? Absolutely! But we have to prescribe Christ. We have to let true Love take over.
"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him." 1 John 4:9
