Love Changes

They say, “Jesus is Love.” They also say following Jesus means following His example of loving everyone.

That’s a beautiful way to follow, but here’s what puzzles me: Why do people forget His other teachings that we should also follow? So many folks want to highlight only “loving” people, then they redefine love as affirm, accept, embrace, or tolerate, while completely ignoring the fundamental life change required to live eternally.

The problem is, this kind of “love” leaves people feeling temporarily accepted but spiritually unchanged. It’s like telling someone with a broken leg that they’re perfect just as they are instead of helping them get to the hospital. Sure, it feels good in the moment, but it doesn’t actually heal anything.

Here’s the thing that might surprise you: Loving others wasn’t what Jesus taught the most, nor was it the Greatest Commandment.

Listen to what Jesus actually said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Notice the order? The first part, loving God, is what drives everything Jesus taught most often: the Kingdom of Heaven, repentance, faith, and eternal life. When you love God with everything you’ve got, you naturally want to live right and spend eternity with Him. That’s not legalism talking; that’s love responding to love.

The second greatest commandment, loving others, flows naturally from loving God. Sure, the Bible shows Christ teaching about this plenty, but not nearly as much as He taught about repentance, salvation, and eternal life. The frequency tells us something about His priorities.

And here’s where it gets interesting: Jesus didn’t conform to this world. He didn’t affirm people in whatever they were doing. He transformed people and the world around them. When Jesus encountered people, He offered them something infinitely better than temporary comfort. He offered them eternal life, but it required genuine change. Not change to earn His love, but change because His love was so compelling they couldn’t stay the same.

Think about it: if someone you loved had been in an affair with someone else, would you want them to continue in that affair now that they’re with you? Most of us, including God, want pure devotion. We should want to give our devotion because we love. True love sometimes has to make big decisions because the stakes are just that large, and in this case, eternal.

People also seem to draw this artificial line through the Trinity, as if Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as if they are not in perfect harmony together. They paint God the Father as the vengeful one killing people in the Old Testament while Christ gets to be the loving one in the New Testament. They think the repentance thing belongs in the past, with Christ replacing it with “Just love them into heaven.”

Let’s inspect that idea for a moment.

Remember when Jesus appeared as one of the three visitors to Abraham in Genesis 18? Well, that same Jesus then went straight to Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed both cities. Complete obliteration. And get this: John 5:22 tells us that “the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” It was Christ’s decision to destroy those cities, presumably to keep evil from spreading like wildfire and consuming everything in its path.

That’s love too. It’s tough love that makes hard sacrifices so countless others will have a chance at living eternally with Him. Sometimes love says no. Sometimes love removes the cancer before it kills the patient.

The Jesus who wept over Jerusalem is the same Jesus who will return in judgment. The Jesus who forgave the woman caught in adultery is the same Jesus who told her to “go and sin no more.” The Jesus who had compassion on the crowds is the same Jesus who called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs.

Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32), and “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance means to completely change your mind, judging your prior thoughts and conduct as wrong so that you’re choosing a better way.

Christ’s call is to love God in a way that allows real change within, and then love others. That’s not contradictory; that’s complete. That’s what perfect love actually looks like when it encounters a broken world.