Love Has Everything To Do With It

“What love got to do, got to do with it...” -Tina Turner

“How beautiful love can be/On the streets love is hard to see/It’s a place I got to be/LOVING YOU IS LOVING ME...” -Common

“‘Teacher which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. One these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’” -Matthew 22:36-40

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

“This is my commandment, that you love another as I have loved you. No greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. I do not call you servants any longer...but I have called you friends...” -John 15:13,15

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” -1 John 4:7-8


Tina Turner in 1984 asked a question that many people have continued to ask since that day. Tina asked the world “What’s love got to do with it?” She went on to say that love was nothing but “a second hand emotion.” Then she topped off and said “who needs a heart when a heart can be broken.” And I know in some way, shape or fashion people can relate to what Tina Turner was talking about. If we look at her life and the history of abuse she faced, we can see why she questioned love. There have been times in our lives where we probably questioned loved. If we look at society, the lack of love is easy to see. When we look at the news, stories of violent crimes are generally the headlines. The abuse that occurs behind closed doors that we don’t hear about. The way we treat the homeless, poor, and less fortunate. The lack of love is evident in the world. It appears that the world has taken on the “what’s love got to do with it attitude.” But Jesus reminds me that love has EVERYTHING to do with it.

Love is a (and I almost want to say the) foundational principle that Christianity stands upon. Christianity and Love go together like lock and key. As a Christian we are commanded by God to love. Not only this but people will recognize that we belong to God if we love one another. The problem is that we have a hard time loving one another. We have difficulty loving our enemies. We have challenges loving people who have betrayed us. We have problems loving somebody who we cannot profit from in some way, shape, or fashion. Sometimes we even struggle to love people we know we are “supposed” to love. God never said that loving would be easy, but that does not mean that we excused from loving God and God’s people.

Our society encourages us to be self-centered. The world revolves around us and it is a privilege for you to be in MY galaxy. I believe that it is important for people to love themselves but when it gets to a point of narcissism then we have a problem. This self-obsession that has overtaken many in the world has become detrimental to the health of society. I love the line in hook to Common’s song “Love Is.” He says that “loving you is loving me.” Common has summed up what Christ teaches us in the Gospels. By loving my neighbor, I am loving God and myself. By treating God’s people as my neighbor and my friend, I am in turn loving God and myself. By stepping out of my own little world and stepping into the world of my neighbor’s, I am loving God and myself.

So at the end of the day, Love has everything to do with it. It is important that we embrace this principle of love. Love has the capacity to change the world. The love of God has transformative power. Love has the capability of turning the most cold-hearted person and this cold-hearted world around. We must embrace it though. By embracing love, we are embracing God because God is love.

This is Minister Mike and I want you to Consider This...