A Generation Who Loves Themself
The Beatles wrote a song called “All You Need Is Love” in which they borrow wisdom from the Bible referring to Ecclesiastes 1:9. They sing that it’s easy to be or do whatever you want, because it’s been done before. The solution is – all you need is love. God is love, so the chorus is true, we only need God. All this being said, I don’t think the song is a good model for a true believer. I believe this song is revealing a sickness our society battles with today.
A Different Time
The Beatles came out of a time when America had just stepped into a new revolution of idolatry. Free love and sex was rampant. Roe vs Wade identified our need for self indulgence without consequence; and a real absence of true love.
Infectious Self Love
The sickness is the love of ourselves. We have become our own idols. Apps like Instagram and Snapchat are evident of this. We want others to be into us, our lives. We want followers and admirers to love and like our photos or videos. We take photos of unimportant moments that just contain our faces, “selfies”. Selfies are our prompt for our followers to pour their praise into our lives, and it works. How clever of the enemy to devise such a tricky scheme that we don’t even realize we’ve become idol worshipers of ourselves. The creation loving itself instead of God.
Is This Really a Problem?
If you’re reading this thinking “what’s the big deal?”, I was thinking the same thing. I was reading 2 Timothy 3 when all this began to expose itself. This is actually an epidemic. This passage isn’t being vague, it’s pretty much speaking directly to us now. If we were to stop and consider the how much of the first 9 verses can be directed at us it would probably be around 90% applicable.
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
2 Timothy 3:1-9
Shall I Repent Then?
Time to repent, seriously, repent with me. Hearing the word of God then doing nothing about it is also a huge issue with us. James 1:22 tells us we’re deceiving ourselves if we don’t take action. This whole faith thing isn’t easy. Following God’s word isn’t as fun as doing whatever we want, but the rewards are literally unfathomable – an eternity with Christ.
All We Need Is Love
Going back to the topic of this article, all we need is love. We need Christ’s love. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. This love that’s written about in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is what identifies a healthy and true follower of Christ. This is the love we need.