What is love

I doubt that there is any subject that generates more interest in most people than the topic of love. We all need love. We all want to be loved. Yet all too often the love we so desire doesn’t last. In the end many people look for a continuous love but never find it. So, what is this thing that we long for but so often eludes us?

There is a popular song from the 1980’s that speaks powerfully to this issue. This song pulled the heart strings of an amazing number of people. It topped the music charts in eight countries around the world. It is on the list of the top 300 songs of all time. It has sold over a hundred million copies. It is still occasionally being played on the radio years after it was released and is still being bought. It has been heard by well over a billion people. That is over an eighth of the world’s current population.

I want you to pause, pull up YouTube on your phone, search for “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner (original recording) and listen carefully to the lyrics.

Why does this song resonate so strongly with so many people?

There are many reasons I suppose but the main reason by far is because we identify so readily with the “heart ache and pain”. We don’t want to face it again.

Many people think this is a romantic love song, but it’s not. Foreigner is a successful rock and roll group; but this song is obviously not a rock and roll song. The song is about a different love than they knew. To understand what they were asking for we need to refer to the ancient Greek language which is more descriptive than our English. The Greeks had four words they used to describe love. Phileo is used to describe brotherly love. It’s the love we have for our neighbors, our community, our country. Storge is used to describe the love for our family. The love we have for our parents, our siblings, our children, and relatives. Eros is the love for our spouse, romantic love. They knew these loves. They had experienced these loves. The problem was that these loves were inconsistent, incomplete, would come and go. Sometimes, they would completely die. What they were asking for was a complete love, one that lasted, one that wouldn’t die. They knew that love brought happiness, joy, contentment, and peace. Love made everything good. They knew it was the lack of love that brought the heart ache and the pain. They wanted to know the fourth type of love, Agape. A deep and profound sacrificial love that persists regardless of circumstances. A love that would take away the heart ache and pain.

There are two very unusual things about the writing and production of this song. First, it was not the result of a group of people spending hours or days straining over it. Mick Jones the groups guitarist, and main author, said it was given to him by a “Higher Power”. He was working late one night, about 3:00 AM, when the words of the chorus and the first three cords came to him and kept recycling in his mind. He was so taken by the words that he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote them down so he wouldn’t forget them by morning. When he got up the next day, he immediately began working on the song. He said that the rest of the lyrics and music flowed easily from his pen. The song is a prayer to the “Higher Power”. “I know you can tell me”. “I know you can show me”.  Jones then pitched it to the group. One of the guys didn’t want to record it because it was not in their music genre. The others, however, liked it and scheduled a time with their recording studio.

The second was when they went to record it. They did five takes. They were good but there was something missing that they couldn’t quite put their finger on. So, someone suggested that they all get in a circle in the center of the studio and recite the Lord’s Prayer. LOL! Can you believe that? A rock group reciting the Lord’s prayer!

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

That seemed to have inspired them Jones said. Then they went back to their respective places, did one take, and released it. That is what you just heard. The group packed out football and soccer stadiums around the world. When they played this song, they used local church choirs as their background singers. Many times, the audience sang along so loudly that the band members stopped singing and let the audience sing it back to them. The band had other hit songs, but all their other songs combined never approached the success of, I Want to Know What love Is.

The popularity of this song very clearly points to three basic truths: first, most people believe there is a “Higher Power”, second, most people believe that since there is an incomplete love there must also be a complete love which will fix the “heart ache and pain” in this world, and third, the “Higher Power” can tell us and show us how to have this complete love.

Foreigner had one major problem though; they didn’t know who or what the “Higher Power” was. Therefore, they did not know that the “Higher Power” had been telling mankind about His love since the Garden of Eden. About 3500 years ago He instructed Moses to write down a brief description of creation and the early history of humanity. About 700 B.C., He instructed the Hebrew prophet Isaiah to write about the time when all love would be a complete love and be practiced by all nations. Here is what Isaiah wrote:

In the last days the Mountain of the Lord will be established as the highest mountain; it will be exalted above the hills and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, …… He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” ….. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation nor will they study war anymore. (Isa. 2:2-4)

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; …. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. (Isa. 9:2a, 6,7a)

Around 600 B.C. the prophet Daniel, having been taken captive to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem and distinguishing himself among the wise men, interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that greatly troubled him. So, he called all his wise men together and asked them to tell him the meaning of the dream. However, to make sure the interpretation was true and not just something they made up, he required they tell him the dream first and then give him the interpretation. The wise men complained that it was impossible for them to tell him his dream and that no king had ever require their wise men to do such a thing. Nebuchadnezzar was enraged and ordered all the wise men to be executed. Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends and asked them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends would not be killed. That night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. The next morning, he went to the executioner and requested to see the king. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, “No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king what he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown you what will happen in days to come. In your dream you saw a great statue awesome in appearance. The head was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and the wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream and now this is what it means. Your majesty, you are that head of gold. After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom strong as iron. In the time of those kings, the God of heave will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

From ancient world history we know the Meads and the Persians conquered Babylon. They were the “chest and arms of silver.” Next, the Greeks under Alexander the Great conquered them. The Greeks were the “belly and thighs of bronze”. Then, the Romans conquered the Greeks. The Roman Empire was the legs of iron and feet of iron and clay.

These specific revelations were given to the Hebrew prophets, but the “Higher Power” has also revealed Himself through nature to all mankind in general.

About 500 B.C. as the Greek empire began its rise to power a wise man named Heraclitus, who is known today as the Father of Greek Philosophy, concluded from his studies of ancient wisdom literature and nature that all things originated from one source and returns to that same source. He never identified whether the source was a power, a place, or a being. It was something he couldn’t examine nor explain. But it was there. It existed. He called it the Logos meaning “the reason” or “the spoken”.  Later other Greek philosophers including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle picked up on Heraclitus’s thesis and added their learning making it the pillar of Greek thinking and resulting in the development of the scientific method. When the Romans came in and conquered the Greeks, they took everything of value back to Rome with them. They also adopted the concept of the Logos and made it the world view of their time. They then spread their knowledge over all of Europe and it became the foundation of our western civilization. However, it wasn’t until the early 1990’s that information gathered from the Hubble telescope proved Heraclitus correct. Today scientists call it the “Big Bang”.

Around 90 A.D. the Apostle John was the first writer in history to identify the Logos. In the backdrop of this thinking, which in English is translated “Word” he wrote his biography of Jesus of Nazareth to the Roman world. He began it with:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not over come it. (John 1:1-5)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling with us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 14)

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1: 18)

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Rev. 22:13)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched --- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1)

The Apostle John identified the “Higher Power” as Jesus the Son of God.

The Apostle Paul guided by the Spirit of God wrote a detailed description of what this complete love is:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Cor. 13: 4 – 8a)

There are two huge tragedies though about this agape love. First, most people have never heard about the Logos. And the second is even worse many of those who have heard about him have not listened even though there is evidence all around us that they should.

The very popular historic writer and political commentator, Bill O’Reilly wrote in the postscript of his 2013 book, Killing Jesus:

Both Martin Dugard and I learned a tremendous amount while researching and writing this book. But one intriguing question and a profound statement of fact stand out. Why did thousands of common people seek out Jesus of Nazareth? What was Jesus doing that prompted so many people to set aside their daily labor to be near him? … even nonbelievers must admit that something extraordinary was happening in Galilee.

Second, there is no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is the most famous human being the world has ever known. But Jesus had no infrastructure. He had no government behind him. He had no corporation. He and his disciples depended upon the charity of others for food and shelter, and they had no organization other than a dozen faithful followers. In the history of mankind, no one has achieved worldwide fame with no outside resources whatsoever.

Since his death, Jesus has played a continual role throughout history.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. based his entire ministry and civil rights movement on the teachings of Jesus. He said the following about enemies:

Just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.

If you do not know this love of God, this agape love that makes all things better, that never fails, then ask someone who displays the XNUHope logo. They will be glad to share what they know with you. You do not have to live with continual heart ache and pain. There is hope for this broken world in Christ.

Daniel A. Jacobus

President

Christ In You Hope Inc.