I want to know what love is

July 11, 2013  David Murray   1 comment

There are many themes in Gospel Preaching.

We must preach on humanity: our sinfulness, misery, mortality, vanity, inability, and responsibility. Each is a vital theme but none is the primary theme.

We must preach on the world: its creation, corruption, care, and re-creation. Each is a vital theme but none is the primary theme.

We must preach on the Bible: its inspiration, inerrancy, veracity, sufficiency, authority, clarity, and reliability. Each is a vital theme but none is the primary theme.

We must preach on God: His holiness, wisdom, justice, power, unchangeability, eternality, and infinity. Each is a vital theme but none is the primary theme.

The primary theme of Gospel preaching is God’s Love.

Why?

  • Because God’s love is the reason behind the Gospel (John 3:16).
  • Because God’s love is demonstrated in the Gospel (1 John 4:9).
  • Because God’s love is the explanation of the Gospel (1 John 4:10)
  • Because God’s love is the motivation for preaching the Gospel (2 Cor. 5:14)
  • Because God’s love is the end/aim of the Gospel (1 Tim 1:5; 1 Cor. 13:13).
  • Because God is love (1 John 4:8).
  • Because love is the greatest need and deepest longing of the human heart.

Love is the theme of more songs, more plays, more books, more films, and more poems than any other human experience. We long and love to love and to be loved. It completes us, satisfies us, excites us, and thrills us. Why else the popularity of such songs as the anthemic: “I want to know what love is, and I want you to show it”

And that’s what makes Christianity so unique. It offers the greatest love imaginable – the love of God. That’s why the John, the Apostle of love, dwells on this theme so much and exclaims: “This is love! not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). This is what makes the Gospel the Gospel.

The world cries: “I want to know what love is and I want you to show me.”

But at Calvary, God says: “I want you to know what love is, and I want to show it to you.”

THIS. IS. LOVE.

  • http://outin2thedeep.wordpress.com Wesley

    Dr. Murray -
    as a child of the 80′s, i get the connection so much more b/c of your use of that song (along with your exemplary hermeneutic as well of course). Thanks for the admonition to remember that the gospel is the answer to the soul’s great need: to be loved.

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