In 1967, the Beatles released their infamous song “Love is all you need.” This song came out during a time deemed in popular culture as the “sexual revolution.” Now for transparency let me be clear I was not around in 1967 nor was I even a thought in my parent’s minds since they were 15 and 12 years old then. This song highlights the concept of love and that in the end all you need is just that, love.
As I look at our society and culture today it seems that the sexual revolution of the 1960s-1980’s never really ended but morphed into something worse. Today people say that sex sells and it appears it does.
Many movies add a dose of sex to attract more viewers and more attention. A scandalous news story involving sex in some form always gets higher ratings and even amongst adults if you have lost people’s attention while speaking and just randomly say sex it’s as if a bomb had gone off. Everyone turns their heads and pay attention.
Look, sex is great. Anyone who has experienced the act of healthy consensual relations knows that it is a wonderful experience. Oh my, you might be saying right now, a pastor writing about sex? Yes and, breaking news for everyone, God, whom I work for, is the one who created sex. In the beginning, God creates two beings in His image of two distinct sexes male and female and tells them to procreate. By now you should know where children come from. If you don’t, ask a nearby adult.
Yet the point of this article is not to focus on sex but to take the conversation back to the concept of love. I remember being in high school and friend told me, “Anyone can have sex but not everyone knows how to make love.” Clearly there is the physical act between a man and woman that can lead to procreation. But any person who has been in love and loves their husband or wife knows that there is something different about the rudimentary act of sex and truly being physically intimate with the one you love.
Love is the most important thing, not sex. Sex is not all we need. Love, as the Beatles said, is what you need; what we all need.
The Bible says that God doesn’t just love us (John 3:16) but God is love; he is the embodiment of love. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
We can love one another because God, who is love, has created us in His image. We share in us a part of God’s attribute of love.
The problem in our society is that we have become so fixated on “how we feel” and we love others many times if that person makes us “feel loved.” The truth is that we are called to love primarily in the way that God has loved us.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
What does this all mean? We did nothing to deserve this love from God. On the contrary our sinful state made us most undesirable. Yet God showed us grace in that he chose to love us even when we wanted nothing to do with God. God loves you no matter what and he wanted to prove it to you. That is why Jesus came to die for you and for me so that we would understand how profound God’s love is for us.
This Valentine’s Day, let us remember the greatest love of all, which is found in He who is love. May we be encouraged to love each other putting aside the list we have of why we shouldn’t love the other person or why they don’t deserve our love. We should be eternally grateful that God is not a man that he would operate in the way we do or else no one would be saved. But thanks to God we are loved and we can love.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.” (1 John 4:7)
* The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of Chadds Ford Live. We welcome opposing viewpoints. Readers may comment in the comments section or they may submit a Letter to the Editor to: editor@chaddsfordlive.com
About Rev. Marcos O. Almonte
Rev. Marcos O. Almonte is senior pastor at Brandywine Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist Church west of Philadelphia. Pastor Marcos is a graduate of Palmer Theological Seminary with more than 10 years working with families with an expertise in theology, trauma and addictions. Pastor Marcos and his wife Mary have three children, Carmen, Joseph, and Lincoln.
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