This is originally a sermon I spoke in a few churches. The title has certainly caught some attention. I gave it to a pastor in one of the churches and she shot me a lightning fast response, “What do you mean love is not God!”

Well, we’ll find out. In this article, we’ll talk about the one holy, sacred and venerated word in our culture – “love”.

A 4-page Bible.

Let’s read Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus replied: “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.”

A casual reading of this passage would easily give us the impression that “love” is everything. Nothing else matters. There is no need to pay attention to any other commandments. You’ll be surprised how many people read it exactly like that. They believe that the two love commandments replace all other commandments, but that’s exactly what Jesus did not say! Those people basically reduced the whole entire bible to one word – “love”. To them, the Bible only has 4 pages –

• Page 1: L
• Page 2: O
• Page 3: V
• Page 4: E

That’s it, nothing more, nothing less!

But buoy, wouldn’t you think that we have just made God a fool if that’s true? Why give us 66 books of the Bible, when He could have done it in just 4 letters!

One of those who read the Bible this way is a guy by the name of Joseph Fletcher. Some of you may recognize his name. He is a major proponent of what is commonly known as “situational ethics”

Born 1905, he is not super old. In fact, he is very much a contemporary of our time. He holds up “love” as the only one thing that matters in any ethical decision. To him, no action is right or wrong in and of itself – it all depends – on what? The situations – that’s why it’s called situational ethics.

So it’s not God who decides what is right and what is wrong – it’s the situations.

If you should ask a question like, “Is adultery wrong?” Joseph Fletcher would touch his nose and say, “I don’t know, maybe, give me a case!” And, if you don’t, he would actually go on to give you some marginal, provocative, and graphic cases of his making to demonstrate his point.

Before we go into his cases – let me put in a disclaimer first. All these case are his – not mine. OK? Are you ready?

• Case #1 – Sacrificial Adultery: A German mother of two was captured by the Russians near the end of World War II. The rules of her Ukrainian prison camp allowed her release to Germany only in the event of pregnancy, in which case she would be returned as a liability. So the woman asked a friendly camp guard to make her pregnant. She was sent back to Germany, was welcomed by her family, gave birth to the baby, and made him a part of the family. Was her adultery justified? Fletcher didn’t say that it was in so many words, but clearly implied it by calling it “sacrificial adultery”
• Case #2 – Patriotic Prostitution: A young woman working for a US intelligence agency was asked to lure the enemy spy into blackmail by using her sexuality. In the guise of a secretary, she was to become involved with a married man working for a rival power. When she protested that she could not put her personal integrity on the block by offering sex for hire, she was told, “It’s like your brother risking his life or limb in Korea. We are sure this job can’t be done any other way.” She was patriotic and wanted to serve her country. What was the loving thing to do? Fletcher’s response seems to be: why not! Fornication can be legitimately done in the name of love for the Fatherland.
• Case #3 – Acceptable Abortion: an unmarried schizophrenic patient was unfortunately made a victim of rape. She became pregnant. Ultra-sound scan shows that the baby is physically deformed. What are the chances that the mother and the baby will have a “good” life? Solution – easy, just get rid of the baby!
• Yet another case: a young guy and a young girl fell in love. They wanted to get married but they couldn’t do that without their parents’ consent. And so they went to their parents. Their answer? “Not over our dead bodies!” Stuck! Solution? “Easy”, according to Fletcher. Make the girl pregnant and the parents will have no options but to say “yes”! Do it in the name of love! Why not! (Don’t do this in real life, please!)
• Wife-swapping, for consenting adults, is not an issue for him at all!

But wait a second here: something definitely doesn’t sound right – in the name of love, we have now justified adultery, prostitution, pre-marital sex, and wife-swapping. Looking for biblical support? Hey, read Matthew 22:40 “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two love commandments”? There you go, you have Jesus’ words right there. Haha!

Something has gone really wrong here – but just what is it? Before we dig deeper into the issue, perhaps we should know something more about Joseph Fletcher. He lived part of his life as an ordained Episcopal (Anglican) priest. When he died at the age of 86, he was a professing atheist. See where his own thinking has led him?

God is love, but love is not God!

A myth debunked

So what exactly is wrong with that interpretation of this passage? Read verse 40 carefully again “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Now, does it tell us to put all the Law and the Prophets in a bag and leave it out on the front-lawn, to be collected as garbage the next morning? No!

The original Greek word for “hang on” is κρεμαται , which literally means “are suspended from”. And so the NIV translation correctly captures the sense of the original word – “hang on”.

You see, Jesus said these words in response to a question from the Pharisees, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”. Whatever the Pharisees’ motive may have been, they have asked a very legitimate question here. On top of the Ten Commandments handed down from Moses, the Pharisees had 613 laws and commandments from their own traditions. With that many commandments to remember and observe, where do they start? It’s like buying 50 different items from a supermarket, and like everybody else you’ve only got two hands to carry them. What would you do? Well, that’s why you need shopping bags! But even if you put all of your 50 items in a shopping bag, it would still be too much to carry, unless the shopping bag comes with a handle – then you can dump all your 50 different items in, grab the handle and walk singing and dancing to the parking lot!

But what have we done? We cut off the handles from the rest of the bag, and hold them up as the only thing that really matters. But the handles, detached from the rest of the bag, offers absolutely no help in getting a grip on anything at all! That’s what people have done to Jesus’ words.

God is love, but love is not God!

“Do what logic would have you do!”

You see, the word “love” is so general, so broad that it can mean anything. That’s why we need the rest of the Bible to tell us exactly what “love” looks like. But now that we have cut it off from the rest of the Bible, we are left with a somewhat empty and vague concept.

Imagine this – you have a math problem that you need help on, you take it to your accountant or engineer dad, look at him and ask, “Dad, can you help me with this?” Your dad looks back at you, and says, “Hey, just do whatever logic would have you do!” And then walks away on you. That really helps, eh! Yes, I knew that, dad, but I still don’t know how to solve this problem!

But has dad said anything wrong? No, in fact, he’s right on! Logic is important in solving any problems. But what you need to see is some solid examples, step-by-step instructions to help you know exactly what logic look like. Telling people to do whatever love would have them do is just as helpful as telling them to solve a math problem with logic.

God is love, but love is not God!

- CY