Using the Term "Love is Love" Correctly

 

Recently, I posted something on social media that said people are offended when they hear things like "sleeping with your boyfriend/girlfriend before marriage" or "being in a homosexual relationship" is a sin. People are offended by this kind of statement because they want God to conform to their feelings instead of conforming their lives to God’s will. Someone responded by saying, “love is love.” This slogan has become the war-cry of the modern LGBTQ community. The fact is, the slogan itself is correct. The problem is, many within our modern culture have never understood what true love actually is.

What is Love?

When we talk about love these days we are often met with conversations about feelings and caring for someone. Certainly, this is part of love but it is not the full breadth of love. This does not just apply to homosexual relationships. So often people in our modern era find nothing wrong with sleeping with or living with their significant other before they are married.

As someone who lived his 20’s not walking with the Lord I fully understand this mentality. Yet, I have come to understand that sleeping with your significant other before marriage has nothing to do with love. It is actually the opposite. If we truly loved the person we would wait until marriage to avoid offending the Almighty God. The same is true for those within the homosexual community. True love means turning a person towards God and helping them come closer to the Creator. Those who say they love someone and continue to push them towards death is not truly loving them.

If I know the local well has been poisoned, and my friend or family member is going to drink from it, I don't hand them a cup and say, "here ya go, enjoy!" I stop them! The idea that I can love someone while pushing them to do something that God hates is like handing them that cup.

Can Non-Believers Love?

The obvious objection that will come to what I have just proposed is, "certainly, an unbelieving person can love their spouse without believing in Christ." In some sense, this is true. You can love a person emotionally and have a loving connection with that person. God has created us as humans in order to do so. But true love in it’s fullest sense is when a person cares for you enough to push you towards a stronger walk with Christ. This goes for husbands and wives, friends, and family members.

Love is Love

Thus, the saying, “love is love” is totally true if love is defined correctly. If we define love to mean that a person always tries to push you closer to Christ and build you up in faith, then love is always love. This definition will always exclude homosexual relationships, heterosexual relationships that are engaged in fornication, and extramarital relationships. Love may be love, but sexual contact is not loved.