Spread the Love

Love songs. Turn on the radio, and chances are one will be playing.

 

The 1960s the Vietnam War was going on and there was a lot of college unrest. It seemed protest was everywhere. Turn on the radio and chances are a protest song would be on.

 

Many of the songs were against war, the establishment and so forth. Others, however, were anti-war songs that were pro –love. These include Get Together (Youngbloods), All You Need is Love (Beatles) and Imagine (John Lennon) among many others.  (To be fair, Imagine is a love song about humanity living in a socialist/communistic utopia with no war, or no God, apparently).

 

In all of these songs, the reason to love was to avoid war and to make us feel good about ourselves.

 

Today’s reading is 1 John  3:11-24.

 

Apostle John reminds us that we should love each other. Words are not enough. He says, “let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

 

Kind words are nice; helpful actions are nicest.

 

There is a need for loving actions everywhere.

·         Cook a meal for a family whose mother is ill

·         Opening a door for somebody

·         Donating to a food pantry

·         Mowing an elderly person’s lawn

·         Listen to someone who is troubled about something

And on it goes. We don’t need to look too far to find a need that we can fill.

 

Will the kind of love that John speaks of stop war? Probably not. There will always be war, for a variety of reasons. Besides, stopping war is not the reason we love people.

 

John explains, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

 

Our reasons for loving are not to stop wars or to make us feel good about ourselves.

 

We love others because Jesus loved us first.

 

Spread the love!