I caught myself doing it last week. I catch myself doing it more times than I care to admit and it seems like Christmas is when I am reminded of it the most. Sometimes when I catch myself in the moment; I can react quickly enough to avoid it, but other times despite my best efforts I still do it. It just slips out… mostly because I’m lazy. I want to do better… be better… but then I find myself reverting to sluggish exaggeration instead of captivating wordplay. Yep, I cheapen the word… “love”.
Oh! I LOVE that movie. I LOVE seeing Christmas lights. I LOVE watching football. I LOVE going on vacation. I LOVE eating crab legs. I LOVE riding roller coasters. I LOVE wearing flannel. I LOVE doing lawn work. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! Love is one of the most overused and mis-appropriated words in vocabulary — and I really want to stop trivializing it.
Maybe it would be helpful to us if English had more than one word for the concept of “love” like some other languages do. In the Greek language during Biblical times there were six words for “love,” but even Greek doesn’t have one for: “I LOVE Ohio State football”.
In the Greek New Testament there are three primary words used for LOVE. Eros — the kind of love that lovers share for one another. Philia — The kind of love that friends have for each other. Agape — Unconditional love: such as the love God demonstrates for His children. All three of those forms of love are significant relationship indicators in our lives, but when I add, “I just LOVE Lays Potato Chips… yeah… it doesn’t quite belong, does it?
Do you know what does belong? God’s LOVE for His people. But God demonstrates his own love (Agape: the unconditional love of a perfect Father) for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Stupid English, huh? How can we say, “I just LOVE peach ice cream,” and then turn around and say, “God demonstrates his own LOVE for us…” and appropriate love into both of those statements?
Today, our Christmas Advent theme is LOVE. The LOVE that God demonstrates for his people. What motivated God to be born as a human baby in the person of Jesus that first Christmas night so long ago? LOVE. Love prodded Jesus from his throne in Heaven to a manger in a stable, and love drove him to the cross at Calvary.
For God so LOVED the world (John 3:16)… I (Jesus) have LOVED you… (John 13:34) As the Father has LOVED me, so LOVE I you… (John 15:9) Who shall separate us from the LOVE of Christ? (Romans 8:35) In LOVE he predestined us into adoption… (Ephesians 1:5) That you may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the LOVE of Christ. (Ephesians 3:18) Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly LOVED… (Colossians 3:12) And then, David assures us over and over that God’s LOVE endures forever! Today, just three days before we celebrate Christmas again… remember the LOVE that God has for you that he clearly demonstrated in Jesus — and celebrate it!
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