The Christmas lights have dimmed, the New Years celebrations have died down, and now come the red hearts, roses, and romance that flits here and there. Many become a bit uncertain and apprehensive as they attempt to master this elusive concept and fall into love with a special someone. Others seem to have found it, hold on to it, and live in contented bliss. And yet others who once thought they found it, have grown indifferent and uninterested, apparently thinking that love is but an illusion for fools. God reveals to us the truth about love so that we can live in contentment and the enjoyment of this love now and to eternity.
The evolutionist who scorns the one and only God sees love simply as one of the powerful chemicals within the body that has developed over the millions of years. It is a chemical combination that serves to guide our species toward the production of offspring most fit for survival. Love is a chemical that happens to shuffle the gene pool to make the human race strong. Love is a chemical that brings temporary blindness to the tremendous responsibility and work that comes after love irresistibly draws two together and the children are born. If those chemicals had not developed, then nobody would ever bother with reproduction and all the work of raising children and maintaining a strong well supplied home until the children were ready to go on their own. Everyone would hoard their resources and not spend vast amounts of time and money changing endless diapers and feeding the howling mouths. The “wise” evolutionists today have figured out many ways to enjoy love with minimum responsibility by keeping the number of children minimal and using money to pay someone else to do the dirty work.
Sure, love can be cruel when it raises the hopes of those less desirable humans only to slam them back down when they are rejected. But that is life—the survival of the fittest. Love selects the strongest traits of humanity and rejects the rest. If the weak and less desirable were easily swept together in love, then the human race would only grow weaker. Love for the evolutionist is simply a very enjoyable carrot that urges humanity on along the pains-taking processes of perpetuating its own kind. Love is a treasured prize which ensures that mankind will continue to dominate the world and receive all the glory.
The concept of Valentine’s Day, by the way, fits in quite comfortably with this evolutionary view of love. Stoke up the fires of love now and then to keep the evolutionary process healthy. Nothing could be more dangerous than a dying out of love. Everyone would seek only the pleasures that come with a lower price and no children would ever be born and raised to be healthy and prosperous adults.
This evolutionist explanation of love is a big lie. God has revealed to His people the truth about love. Love is, in fact, an attribute of God, not merely a created substance. “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). The concept of love is a profound truth having to do with the very essence of God and applied to redeemed man in a multitude of ways.
As with every truth, Satan and fallen man with him take the truth, reject the parts they don’t want, and turn the rest of it in such a way that it says the opposite of its created purpose. Love is an attribute of God that brings all the glory to God, but fallen man uses it for his own glory. God gives His love to man to make him fit for eternal life, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12). But fallen man imagines that love is something that makes the human race fit for a meaningless everlasting life on this earth. It is true that the desires we have within us are a part of the picture of love, but even this must serve to give God the glory, and not man.
We are sinners, and therefore we are very quickly caught up in the lie of the devil when it comes to love. When what is sometimes called “romantic love” seems to elude us, we must not begin to dwell on the lie of the devil and think that we are of little value. Rather, we must cling to the truth that God reveals: God does love me, I am precious in His eyes, and He has determined that what is best for me right now is that I not enjoy the particular manifestation of love which joins a man to a woman. We do not know why. It may be that God has in his council determined that this particular love cannot be fully enjoyed until I am better prepared for it. At such a time we must pray for patience and contentment, cheerfully doing the work that only single people can do. Such a way of thinking gives all the glory to God and makes known true love for God and His people. Nothing is more precious and valuable in the kingdom of God.
When this “romantic love” bubbles endlessly around others throughout their high school days and the wedding day comes soon, or when at last God does bring our partner later in life, it is just as easy to get caught up with the lie of the devil regarding love. We are tempted to boast in ourselves and flaunt our love in the face of others. The evolutionary thought creeps in and whispers, “I am worthy. I now have proved that I have qualities that are better than everyone who is single. I am worthy of perpetuating the human race.” Such pride is wicked. Such pride reduces you to the beastly and meaningless evolutionary fight for the survival of the fittest. God has been pleased to create you with your particular characteristics so that you will be perfectly suited for your partner or single station in life. Some He has created to enter into this particular aspect of love earlier, some later, and some not at all. Each is being prepared in his or her particular way for the fullest enjoyment of love that far surpasses anything in this life.
Whether married or not, God gradually reveals to us through our various experiences what really is at the heart of love. We can read about love in God’s word and learn, but it really does not sink in until we experience what God says. As we grow older we are able, by God’s grace, to peel through all the layers of lie that the world presents to us and get at the truth.
I read a quote from the bulletin while at Peace Protestant Reformed Church in Lansing, Illinois, over Christmas break that states well what is at the heart of love. The quote is from Martin Luther and goes like this, “To have peace and love in a marriage is a gift that is next to the knowledge of the gospel. Love begins when we wish to serve others.” It is the last sentence that I want to focus upon. You can have all the feelings of love in the world for someone, but every shred of pride in yourself will only eat away at that love until it turns to hatred. The most fanciful romantic love quickly sours to bitter hatred and incredible misery when one is unwilling to serve. The idea that something so wonderful as the experience of love is enjoyed in the way of humility and service is foreign to evolutionary thought, yet it is the absolute truth. God tells us in 1 John 2:5 that love for God comes in the way of obedience. We must serve God just as we must serve one another. We read, “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”
That desire to serve one another without any desire to reap some benefit for oneself, does not come from the world and is totally foreign to evolutionary thought; it is truly a gift from God. In Romans 5:5 we read the same thing, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” We must pray for that gift and stop dwelling upon ourselves because the gift of humility and service is where love begins.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen” (2 Cor. 13:14).