Don’t underestimate the power of love

Ultimately, the source of love is God himself; the source of all of our lives. There’s an old medieval poem that says, “Where true love is found, God himself is there

The late Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. once said and I quote: “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way.”

There’s power in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even over sentimentalise it. There’s power power in love. If you don’t believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love. The whole world seemed to centre around you and your beloved.

Oh, there’s power power in love. Not just in its romantic forms, but any form, any shape of love. There’s a certain sense in which when you are loved, and you know it when someone cares for you, and you know it when you love and you show it it actually feels right.

There is something right about it. And there’s a reason for it. The reason has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love, and our lives were meant and are meant to be lived in that love. That’s why we are here. Ultimately the source of love is God himself: the source of all of our lives. There’s an old medieval poem that says, “Where true love is found, God himself is there.”

The New Testament says it this way: “Be-loved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God. Those who do not love do not know God.” Why? “For God is love.” (1 John 4:4-8)

There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live. Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love, is as strong as death.

But love is not only about a young couple. Now the power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we’re all here. Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up! But It’s not just for and about a young couple, who we rejoice with. It’s more than that.

Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history: a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world and a movement man-dating people to live that love, and in so doing to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself !

Love is not selfish and self-centred. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.

If you don’t believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way. Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine our neighbourhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine our governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way. Imagine this tired old world where love is the way. When love is the way unselfish, sacrificial and redemptive. When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.When love is the way, there’s plenty good room plenty good room for all of God’s children. ‘Cos when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My brothers and sisters, that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.

Dr Martin Luther King was right: we must discover love the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.