LOVE IS…

 

The English language may have global hegemony but it can be curiously thin at times. Love, for instance, is an overused word that is made to do too much. We can love a TikTok short but hopefully love our spouses for a bit longer than that. And love has been largely privatised. We don’t talk about love in public life, in how we create policy, make decisions and spend money. If a national politician said love was a starting point for action, they would be made fun of for being soft. We prioritise rationality over emotion in public life, as if our brains are always right and our hearts are always wrong. We talk about hard choices, as a way of excluding love.

 

The lack of talk about love in public life is hardening our culture. In reality, we think with our hearts, not our heads, but aren’t prepared to admit this. And the way it shows through is not in love but by anger. In 2025, Oxford University made rage bait its word of the year. It’s like we are swimming underwater with these digital fishing rods dangling in front of us and we can’t resist taking the hook. Public conversation is mainly conducted online and it is full of anger.

 

It is into this mix that the Church should speak perceptively. The poet GK Chesterton once said: tolerance is all that’s left when love runs out. He said this over a hundred years ago and it quivers with prophetic power today. We pride ourselves on being tolerant, and here is Chesterton telling us it means we’ve run out of love, which is

nothing to be proud of. No-one wants merely to be tolerated in life; people want to be loved.

 

And yet love is much harder edged than it is given credit for. It is much deeper than a romantic feeling and should be distinguished from liking someone. Occasionally people tie themselves in knots because they realise they don’t like someone and think it’s a failure to love as Christ calls us. It is impossible to like everyone in this world and I don’t think I’m offending anyone reading this in guessing you each know people you really don’t like. But we don’t have to like someone to show them love. Love is living in the character of God and doing the right thing by others. And it is practical, as the letter of James unsparingly tells us.

 

Love prioritises other people’s needs. We do this by listening carefully to what other people have to say, rather than using what they say as a springboard to launch into our own concerns. Love does not judge others lazily, just because it can. It does not only rely on words but finds practical ways of helping out. It takes up its cross in daily self-denial.

 

If we are to show practical love for the community around us, we should first love one another in church or what we offer outside will not be believable. Let this love spill over from the church into the community. People may be impressed by verbal expressions of faith but are more impressed by faith in action. What are the presenting needs in the local community? What needs are not presenting because people are too tired and defeated to appeal for help? The kingdom of God draws near and the Church of God grows when the needs of those who have lost out in life are fairly addressed.

 

When people have seen what we have done to help, they are more likely to ask why we have done it. And when they ask why, we have a choice. We can tell them it’s because of our faith or we can keep that bit quiet. The thing is, though, when we keep that bit quiet, we get all the plaudits and God doesn’t get a look in. As Jesus said in his biggest sermon: ‘let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.’

 

It's fair to say that we are not in a great place in the UK right now, and some of these reasons are shared by similar looking countries. There are too many words out there online for all to see, and too many of those words are hostile and divisive and make their readers feel sad, angry or vulnerable. Public bodies are less trusted than they used to be and there have been failures to deliver on promises across public life for a long period of time. There is a huge amount of fingers pointing at where people think the blame should lie.

 

It can feel disempowering to be caught up in this maelstrom, but we have a lodestar to guide us every day we wake up, one that shines on the path in front of us as we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus once again. To listen out for voices that are quieter than others. To pray in hope for imaginative ways to care for the disregarded in this world and those who are derisively called losers. In a world seduced by power, wealth and appearances, God is loitering among those who have lost out; the God who was born in a cow shed and crucified on a cross. For reasons known to God, it is in these places that the Church finds life and growth and recovers its soul.