The greatest love of all

"In spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love"

Alfred Lord Tennyson

I’m not sure I can be called a young man now but my thoughts have turned to love. And love was in the air yesterday as it was Valentine’s day. The celebrations of St. Valentine's Day are steeped in legend and mystery; indeed the motives behind the day's creation and even St. Valentine himself have been shrouded in controversy and doubt.

The first official Saint Valentine's Day was declared on 14th of February by Pope Galasius in 496, in memory of a 3rd century martyred priest in Rome. It is not known for sure whether Pope Galasius was honouring this 3rd century priest or whether it was one of two other martyred priests associated with the 14th of February. One was Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) and the other apparently suffered in Africa along with a number of companions. Nothing further is known about these two Saint Valentines and it is the priest in Rome that has become the most widely acclaimed of the three.

It is believed that the young priest rose to distinction after betraying Emperor Claudius in 270 AD by conducting illegitimate wedding ceremonies in the capital. Emperor Claudius claimed that married men made poor soldiers and consequently decreed that all marriages of younger citizens would be outlawed. Bishop Valentine, however, maintained that marriage was part of God's plan and purpose for the world. He continued to conduct marriages in secret between young people, sometimes as young as twelve, in the name of love.

His success gained him unwelcome notoriety, which became Bishop Valentine's downfall. He was jailed and ultimately beheaded, but not before he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. It is thought that on the evening of his execution the bishop passed her a note which read "from your Valentine". This story has blossomed into the defining tradition of Valentine's Day. An estimated one billion cards sent each year, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.

But it’s not just Valentine’s Day that has got me thinking about love. In the early hours of Sunday (our time) the singer Whitney Houston was found dead in her hotel room in Los Angeles. I wouldn’t claim that I was a big fan of her music. Though she did have a wonderful voice.

What struck me though hearing a number of her songs played on the radio of the last couple of days was that in many of them she sang about love.
“You give good love” “Saving all my love for you” “How will I know (if he really loves me)?” all have love in the title. And then three of them are about when a love affair goes wrong or a relationship ends:
“Didn’t we almost have it all?” “Where do broken hearts go” and “I will always love you”

Given that the singer had a very troubled marriage herself these seem to have a special meaning. She didn’t write any of the songs herself but you can’t help but wonder whether she picked them because she related to them.

Reading an article about her I was struck by the titles of two more of songs she recorded.“The greatest love of all” and “Love will save the day”. Intrigued I looked up the words of the songs.

“Love will save the day” starts with the words:

Sometimes life can make you crazy
It can really put your body to the test
You try so hard to make sure everything goes right
And you find you've only wound up with a mess
It's a common situation

“The greatest love of all” is quite a sad song. The words suggest someone full of regrets. And although the song starts with a sense of optimism:

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be


The rest of the song suggests someone with an emptiness inside:

Everybody's searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs
A lonely place to be
So I learned to depend on me

I am often struck by the fact that very often we can find theology in the most unlikely places. In other words we can find ways of thinking about God in unlikely places. TV programmes, novels and yes in pop and rock music. And on reflecting on these pop songs I found myself doing exactly that. Looking at the theology they contain.

All the songs I’ve mentioned speak of love. And immediately when love is mentioned we can reflect on how love is such a common theme in our faith.

What IS love? There are FOUR words in the Greek language for love but only ONE word for love in English.

When we talk of love in our society, we can mean the love of a mate, parent or child; we can mean a deep friendship or "liking" for a person or thing; or we can mean sexual love. Love in the Greek language is expressed by four different words. Only three of these words are used in the Bible.
What are the Greek Words of Love?

1. Eros, which is sexual or romantic love.
2. Phileo, which is a brotherly love toward someone we really like.
3. Agape, which is the deepest love, which is based on doing good things for another person.
4. Storge, which is the love of one's relatives. It is a relatively unknown word that is used only twice in scripture and only as a compound word.

We can think of love as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13 the agape love God shows us. The self-giving love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ which is the motivating power and pattern for Christian living.

John 3:16

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This is the greatest love of all.

How unlike the words in the song:

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

The words of the sog suggest that the greatest love of all is our love of ourselves. I suppose a psychologist would have plenty to say about the need to love ourselves. But isn’t that narcissism?

So I disagree. The greatest love of all is not learning to love ourselves. The greatest love of all is God’s love for us demonstrated through Jesus.

And going back to the song

Everybody's searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs
A lonely place to be
So I learned to depend on me

Surely if we are looking for someone to look up to; someone who fulfils our needs and who gives us the love that enables us to feel good about ourselves we have Jesus?

Acknowledgements:

Bible text talen from New International Version 1984

Song lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/whitneyhouston/iwillalwaysloveyou.html