Is Love Enough?

Love as a Weapon

I have been in full time ministry for almost thirty years. Most of my battles as a pastor involve someone using love as a weapon. Let me explain what I mean. When I have confronted someone who is languishing in their sin, the person's immediate response is always, "You must not love me." They weaponize love to a point where it is no longer love but some weird subjective form of love.

What Love Really Does

Love is always effective, but not the way we use it sometimes. Love does not condone sin, but rather confronts it. If I love my children but never confront their bad behavior, I should not get named father of the year. If I never correct them, then I am showing them that I do not love them.

The Real Opposite of Love

Many times we think the opposite of love is hate, but that is really not the case. The opposite of love is indifference. Hate is emotional and at hate's foundation is love. Think about it. A strong emotion like hate cannot rise up in you if you do not care about the thing that is driving that emotion.

Indifference: The Real Villain

Indifference is the real villain, not hate. If I do not care about what you do, how you live, or who you do that with, I am not showing love, but I am showing indifference. The ultimate way to show someone you do not love them is to be indifferent to their sin and bad behavior. For example if I do not care that my kids run in the street at 3AM, then I care very little about them. It is when I run outside, discipline, and sometimes speak sternly to them that will show them I care about them.

True Love Confronts

If we love people, then we have to be willing to confront people when they are in violation of God's commands. Now, we should measure our response to the person according to I Corinthians 13, but true love confronts, corrects, and guides people into righteousness.