“What’s love got to do with it?”
One of my pastors recently reminded me of an old Ike and Tina Turner song that constitutes the title to today’s post.
“What’s love got to do, got to do with it
What’s love but a second-hand emotion
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken”
As we have looked at the civil authority this week, in a nation we love and a people we care for deeply, our hearts have been broken. We listen to the news every night and are frustrated by what we see. Often, we feel as if we’re patriots without a country. When we see some of the efforts by the civil authority or the decisions handed down by the courts, we grieve over the millions of children lost to personal “choice” and our inability to save them has us on our knees in prayer for Christ to come quickly. Still, we want to engage—to lash out at evil—and champion a cause for Christ. Because we may feel inadequate, we leave it to others to fight our battles for us. Then the frustration sets in again, hopelessness, and regret, and broken hearts. The enemy probably assumes he has us right where he wants us.
But Christ took care of all of that for us on Good Friday, a couple of millennia ago. That act of civil disobedience is what love has to do with it. The many scenes from the cross shout love to us. His words answer all the questions and provide all of the motivation we need to assume the risk. Such authority requires our response of greatest respect and obedience.
And though our passions may be inflamed by such a picture in our minds, ultimately, there’s little we can do to save our culture from God’s judgement. Our opponents get anxious quickly when we make pronouncements to the effect that we’re trying to save the culture. Making them fearful of us does little to help our potential witness to them.
Rather, we must obey the civil authority, until and unless that civil authority comes between me and my God. And for our opponents, we must pray for them and when they come across the battle lines, waving a white flag, we must then run to meet them and tell them of the reason for the hope that we have. That’s what love has to do with it.
One day, those of us who know and love God’s Son will be free because of what He has done for us this Good Friday. In response, we pursue Truth in love. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I offer this commentary from St. Augustine:
“In the house of the Lord, slavery is free. It is free because it serves not out of necessity, but out of charity… Charity should make you a servant, just as truth has made you free… you are at once both a servant and free: a servant, because you have become such; free, because you are loved by God your Creator; indeed, you have also been enabled to love your Creator… You are a servant of the Lord and you are a freedman of the Lord. Do not go looking for a liberation which will lead you far from the house of your liberator!”
For others of you who find yourselves on the other side of the line of truth that God defines for us in His word, my heart breaks for you. That’s what love has to do with it. When I respect the civil authority, perhaps you are confounded, but you have plenty of evidence to suggest I am right about Truth.
You have but to reference your own commentators. Certainly, I have not studied them all, but in most secular commentaries about truth that I have seen, there is seldom a mention of freedom. Go ahead, look for yourself. And, then, let’s talk. It’s all about love, and certainly, Good Friday.