All you need

I saw a sign recently that said “All you need is love.”  I thought about the number of trainings as a professional that I go to that contradict this comment.  Problems in society like poverty, the brokenness found in abuse and neglect, addictions, perversion, etc.  Love doesn’t make these things go away.

Today I realize that both this saying and my trainings are correct.

The world’s problems will not be overcome with the world’s love.  The world’s idea of love is tainted, superficial, conditional, and fleeting.  Tainted love is dirty, and dirty doesn’t clean.  Superficial love may make a temporary change, but not one that is lasting.  Conditional love breaks down trust because eventually a condition may happen that will stop that love.  Fleeting love does not bring security because the love will leave at some point.

At the same time, the world’s problems can be saved with love.  As I read those words “All you need is love” my mind immediately went to a childhood song we sang at church:

Beloved, let us love one another
For love is of God
And everyone that loveth is born of God
He that loveth not,
Knoweth not God for God is love
Beloved, Let us love one another
I John 4:7 and 8

The song is basically the King James Version of First John 4:7-8.  God is love.  All you need is God.  God is pure.  What He offers is good. God is complete  Everything we need is found in Him and through Him.  God’s love is unconditional, certain and unlimited.  God can not separate Himself from love because He is love.  God is everlasting.

As I meditate on the reality of this, I am overwhelmed by the child-like hope that God is the answer.  It builds my faith.  The world needs God.  I have to get myself, my insecurities, my pride, my short-comings out-of-the-way.  God lives in me.  God lives through me.  If God brings me to them, He will equip me with His love to meet the need.   That restores my hope for the world.  All they need is God.