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I. Love. You.
by Karla Kehl
“I love you!” is a
common phrase. How often have you heard
this said? Many times, it seems we cannot say it enough to someone and other
times we say it because we feel we have to, or merely to fill a moment of
silence. Just think about the last time
you said or heard, “I love you!” – a phrase that claims to say it all. What really was meant?
Let’s look at the phrase more closely. “I” is a simple
enough word to understand. It tends to be the word we interject into our conversations
even if the conversation isn’t about us.
“I” becomes the subject we talk about the most, not necessarily because
we are arrogant, but because we know the most about it. Other words, such as
“me” and “my” are related and seem to stream out of our mouths more than all
other words. Look at any story from a
10-year-old child. The writing will most likely begin every sentence with “I”
in some way or form … and our perspective tends to stay that way as we age. When it comes right down to it, we are only
concerned about number one: me.
Now let’s venture into the vast world of “love.” There are
many kinds of love—agape (committed
love), philia (brotherly love), eros (erotic love) , etc. Depending on the person we say the
word “love” to, the meaning changes. But do we actually love the person? Many times we are tempted to think of our feelings when we think of people we
love, not necessarily the person and their qualities. For instance, how many
times has “I love your sense of humor,” or something similar, entered our
conversations? What is the subject of that sentence? The subject is “I” and the verb is “love.” So really, we aren’t focused on the other
person at all! Again, it’s all about number one and how that other person makes
me feel. “I love your sense of humor”
may well mean “I love that you make me laugh.”
And now let’s talk about “you.” Although the word “you” is used quite a bit
in everyday language, it usually to refers to another person or group of
people. Did you catch that? We are talking about people here. There is nothing
more complex on the face of the earth than people. So it begs the question:
When we say, “I love you,” are we saying we love the whole person and all the
complexities and details we could possibly think of, even their faults?
The answer to all of these questions is simply: God is
wonderful, humans are not. Jesus can
say, “I love you” in perfection. You see, he is the subject of our lives and our salvation. When he says, “I,”
he means it. After all, he is God, the ultimate number one. And God never
minces words with “love.” If you could
look at the Greek version of the New Testament, you’d discover that God has a specific
purpose each time for the specific word for “love” that he chose to use.
As saved and redeemed children of our wonderful God, we are
truly loved, even when we were dead in sin. And best of all, God loves all of us, our whole person, so much
that in Christ he became human with us, lived a perfect life in our place, and
then spread his arms out on the dreaded cross to die for us. And he rose again from death to claim the
victory over sin, death, and especially the devil.
In the end, only God can say, “I love you” and truly mean
it. This does not mean, however, that we should forget ever telling someone we
love them or that we have to come up with a new phrase to tell people we love
them. The beauty of the phrase is its simplicity—I’m not going to argue with
that. It connects two people who really, truly love one another with only one
word that says it all. Love is what connects people. The point is to think
about what “I love you” really means and how much more powerful it is when our
dear Lord says it to us as sinners … and how much more powerful our love for
others is when the love of Christ is in our actions and words.
Because of the love of our gracious God, we will go to our
heavenly home someday. How incredibly
wonderful that will be! We can
truly say God loves us and we love him!
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