WHAT KIND OF SOCIETY?
LOVE There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:18-19 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour 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. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 WHERE IS THE LOVE? The Black Eyed Peas asked ‘Where is the love?’, and looking at the world around us, on our doorstep and over the seas, it is not hard to feel the continued relevance of that search. Meanness seems too easy to encounter, isolation too frequent and anger too often excused. We need more love in our society. This is possibly the least contested of the four ideas we’re exploring, but it is no less complex. We all want more love in our lives, and we want it on our streets, in our politics and across the world.
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Politics needs to learn the language of love. Popular in marriage preparation courses, The Five Love Languages looks at the different ways people give and receive love.17 Maybe we need love languages for public life. What are the core habits we should be promoting in public life that would enable people to give and receive love with greater ease?
IT BEGAN WITH LOVE
People killing, people dying, children hurting, hear them crying, can you practice what you preach, can you turn the other cheek?
At the foundation of the Christian story is love. Creation was an act of love, as God put the universe in motion, as He created the trees, birds and animals, the waters and the fish, the sun and the stars, and said they were good. And then He created people, in His own likeness and He said they were very good.
Father, father, help us, send some guidance from above, because people got me, got me questioning, where is the love? - Black Eyed Peas, Where is the love? 2003
Before all that God is love. God loves the people He created, and through Him we are able to love, but that is first because He is love, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”18 Love is a verb, it is something
