What If Love Is the Language Christians Are Supposed to Speak?

By Pastor John Erickson

There is an old story told about the apostle John. According to an early Christian tradition, John became so elderly that people had to help him into church gatherings.

But when they invited him to speak, he kept giving the same message: "Little children, love one another."

Again and again. The same thing.

Eventually someone wanted to know why he wouldn't say something different. The tradition says John's answer was that this was the Lord's command, and it was enough.

Whether every detail of that story happened exactly that way isn't something we can verify from the Bible. But I love how well it fits John's letter.

Because if you read 1 John, one word keeps showing up: love.

Apparently John thought we needed to hear it more than once.

God Doesn't Merely Do Loving Things

In 1 John 4:7-8, John tells believers to love one another because love comes from God. Then he makes an extraordinary statement: God is love.

Not just that God sometimes acts lovingly. Not that love is one of several things he occasionally chooses to do.

Love belongs to his very nature.

That doesn't mean every feeling people call love must be good. John isn't telling us to define God by whatever our culture finds affirming or attractive. He's telling us to understand real love through the God revealed in Jesus.

And that love does something.

It moves toward people. It gives. It sacrifices. It isn't just an idea we admire from a safe distance.

Love Should Sound Like Our Native Language

Here is a picture that still makes me laugh.

Imagine meeting somebody who tells you they were born and raised in France. They talk about growing up there, going to school there, spending their whole life there.

So you greet them in French.

And they stare at you blankly.

They don't understand a single word.

You would probably have some questions.

John is using a similar kind of logic when he says those who know God ought to love. If God is love, then love should begin to sound like the language of his people.

Do I speak in love all the time? Nope. I wish the answer were more impressive, but it isn't. I need the same invitation to grow that I am passing along to you.

That doesn't mean we never speak sharply or fail to love well. I certainly don't. But love should become increasingly recognizable in our words, priorities, and actions.

Not just on Sundays. Not only when we feel spiritual. And especially not only when loving someone is easy.

The Problem With Our Christian Identification System

We have all kinds of ways to identify ourselves as Christians.

Maybe there's a Bible verse on our shirt. Maybe we share a devotional on social media. Maybe we know every worship song and can explain complicated theological concepts.

Those things can be good. But John doesn't offer any of them as the most persuasive evidence that we know God.

He points to love.

Jesus said something similar in John 13:35: people would recognize his disciples by their love for one another.

Wouldn't it be something if the first thing people noticed about Christians was how they treated others? Not that we were the loudest group, the angriest group, or the group best at winning arguments.

That we were people who loved.

Before You Feel Guilty, Remember Who Loved First

This is where a message about love can turn into a burden if we aren't careful.

You hear how important love is. Then you remember all the people you've been impatient with. You think about the person you've avoided. The conversation you handled badly. The way you spoke about someone when they weren't in the room.

Suddenly the message becomes, Great. Another thing I'm failing at.

But John anticipates that problem.

In 1 John 4:10, he says love isn't first about our love for God. It's about God loving us and sending his Son.

God initiates. We respond.

That's a completely different starting point from trying to earn God's approval through perfect behavior.

We are people who have been loved before we knew how to love well.

Sometimes I meet someone a friend has told me so much about that it almost feels as though we already know each other. But knowing the stories is different from knowing the person. I can do the same thing with God: collect facts about him while holding back from receiving his love and letting it change how I treat others.

Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that believers would grasp the astonishing breadth and depth of Christ's love. He even suggests that comprehending it requires God's power, because it's bigger than what we can get our minds around.

And as we receive that love, it begins to flow outward.

Love Needs to Become an Action

It's possible to feel warmly about people without ever doing anything helpful for them.

But John's message isn't just "Have nice feelings." He connects love with God's action in Jesus. Love looks like serving, giving, forgiving, listening, and showing up.

Maybe someone needs a phone call. Maybe a relationship needs an apology. Maybe there's a neighbor you've been too busy to notice. Maybe you're being invited to show compassion toward a person you normally dismiss.

You won't do every one of those things perfectly. That's not the goal.

The goal is to become a person whose instincts are increasingly shaped by the love they've received.

So here's the question I want to leave with you: If someone observed your ordinary life, what language would they hear?

Would they hear contempt? Irritation? The constant need to be right?

Or would they increasingly recognize the language of Jesus?

"Little children, love one another."

It sounds simple. And it may take a lifetime to learn.