“Love is love” is a mantra repeated extensively throughout our society. For some of us it feels like a hammer we’re repeatedly being smashed in the head with. It’s really a trite saying that says very little, which is why it falls apart at the seams when discussed philosophically.

The proponents of the phrase “love is love” would want you to believe that anything labeled love is love. In fact, many people claiming to be Christians, who are liberal, would have the same sentiment. But first let’s ask some questions for these people.

Those who say love is love are attempting to make a proclamation. They would believe that homosexual love or transgender love is the same as heterosexual love. But if they are stating that anyone who proclaims love is loving, and loving the same as traditional love, then there is no end to that statement?

If a rapist says he loves his victim, is that love love? What about a pedophile? Now some would say, that’s not fair. That is not consensual love. But what if the child says he loves a pedophile? What about those who practice incest? 

I have asked this question to those who say, “love is love” and they have responded with things like, “that’s absurd.” I would agree with them. Pedophila and incest should not be in the same category as traditional marriage between one man and one woman. And this is where they lose the argument. 

They are admitting that love has its limits. That not everything that is declared love is love just because someone says it is. They are saying, for them, there is a line to what love is allowed to be called.

The other thing they are saying is that they are the arbitrator of truth. They are declaring that they are the one who knows what the truth is. How do they know? They know because they know. It’s based on their feelings. This is what could lead to a chaotic society. Or what has led to a chaotic society.

So how can we make choices on what love is? This is the importance of God. This would place God, not us, in charge of what truth is. If we all have the same being as the arbitrator of truth, then we do not need to fight about it.

Let me give four guardrails to God’s love. How do we know what God calls love and He doesn’t. Since there are people who call everything and anything God’s love, we need to understand how God defines love.

This would place God, not us, in charge of what truth is.

#1 Love is obedient to God. If God says something is love, it is, and if he says something else isn’t love it isn’t. John 14:15 says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” 

#2 Love does not involve sin. This is the inverse, but the same as love is obedient to God. You can’t do something God calls sin, and call it love.

#3 Love agrees with the truth. Not only does it agree with what is true, it agrees with God’s truth. I Corinthians 13:4-8, the passage on love, says that love “rejoices with the truth.” If God says something is true, we can show that we love Him by agreeing with Him.

#4 Jesus defines love, in the marital and intimate sense, as one man and one woman in covenant for life. There is no space for love between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. Scripture teaches these things are sin. That marriage is only between one man and one woman who are in marital covenant. In Matthew 19:4-6 where Jesus is talking about marriage, he says, “He made them male and female,” and “they shall become one flesh.” 

Think About It

Do you believe that only God can define love?

If man can define love, who gets to do it? You, your friends, anyone?

Do you follow God’s four guardrails to love?