Good to Say, I Love You

It’s good to say, “I love you.”  Maybe we can practice it together.  “I love you guys.”  “Love you.”

Apostle Paul

Scripture does this.  Usually the Apostle Paul will include a clear expression of love among the words of the text of one of his epistles.  In Romans 12:19, he begins an address to the church at Rome with the words, “Dearly beloved.”  He directs words toward individuals, such as little known “Amplias,” saying in Romans 16:8, “Greet Amplias by beloved in the Lord.”  In 1 Corinthians 4:14, he writes:

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

“My beloved sons.”  Then he calls Timothy his “beloved son” in 4:17.  In 1 Corinthians 10:14, he writes:  “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”  He calls the same people of the church at Corinth, “my beloved brethren,” in 15:58.

John

In 2 John 1:1, John writes:

The elder unto the elect lady and her children,, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth.

He loves this elect lady and her children in the truth.  Jesus said to His disciples the amazing statement of John 16:27 at the end of the Upper Room Discourse:

For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself looked for Peter to tell Him his love for Him in that classic passage in John 21:  “Lovest thou me?”  The Bible records expressions of love and it is good to say it.  Leadership of churches and the people of true churches should communicate their love for each other.

A few times a year, I walk through the card section of a store, looking for a card.  Many will say something about love in them toward the recipient.  You know what I’m telling you is true.  Love is all over greeting cards, a communication of the word “love” at least.  Scripture encourages to say these things, but in the nature of what?  It’s definitely more than just saying something.

Strong Statements That Are Love

When Paul called people “beloved son” or “dearly beloved,” it usually comes with some strong statement of rebuke or a harsh command.  He was saying something like, “Don’t think this means I don’t love you, because I do.”  He said the thing he did, that was hard, because he loved.  The plain implication is that people think you do not love them when you say something true and tough to them, let alone just true.

Jesus said in John 14:23-24:

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

Why would Jesus even need to say this?  Well, because a lot of people say they love Jesus, but they really don’t.  It’s those who keep His Words.  It’s the same in 1 John 4:10: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.”  That’s pretty strong too.  You say you love God, but you’re a liar.

This is where Jesus was at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:20-23) and He said that man would say, Lord, Lord, and He will say, Depart from me, I never knew you.  I never knew you.  Just saying, Lord, Lord, isn’t good enough.

Included Commitment

Some people just won’t say, “I love you.”  I don’t like that.  It’s not something to which I commit.  To me, you let people know you love them.  It’s a commitment.  But scripture itself is not big on just saying it.

I know and you know that people will say they love you, because very often, words are cheap.  We can say, like Peter, Lord, you know that i love you, but Peter wasn’t committed.  People will say, I love you, but they don’t forgive.  They won’t express it and won’t do it.

They also want people to know how much they love, but while saying they love, they betray.  They don’t give or even offer what’s right.  Saying, I love you, is sometimes just a way to get things that you want.  “I said, I love you, where are my goodies?”

Not Sentimentalism or Empathy

Several books are written on a similar theme to what I’m writing here.  Love isn’t sentimentalism (part one, part two).  “I love you” are not magic words to ward away the evil spirits, like they are magical words.  These books are about what Joe Rigney calls, the sin of empathy.

Saying, I love you, is both hard and easy.  It is hard because it means commitment.  But it is easy, because those words don’t require any commitment.  The commitment is the actual love.  The words don’t mean anything and even mean less than anything when the commitment doesn’t come with them.

Love is of God.  For something to be love, it must include God.  God must be God, not an imaginary deity without the same attributes as the one and only true God.