Movieguide® Teddy Bear Award® winner Kirk Cameron and his son James recently explored the meaning of true love on an episode of Kirk’s podcast.
“Love is not something that is passive,” James explained. “If we see somebody who is walking down a path towards destruction and we sit back and we don’t say anything and allow them to continue that behavior, which hurts themselves or hurts others, is that love or is that just toxic empathy?”
1 Corinthians 13 defines what love is and what it isn’t. To Kirk, it is clear that if you act contrary to its definitions of love, then you are not actually loving another — though you may think you are.
James said, “I think that when we’re speaking the truth in love and we’re confronting something that needs to be confronted, our goal and our only goal should be for the betterment of them and not for the rising of my own ego to be able to call you out.”
It’s hard to love people when they act in a selfish or hurtful way, but really loving them doesn’t mean ignoring them or staying silent. It means speaking truth.
“It doesn’t mean being polite and nice and making sure that they are never uncomfortable around you. No, sometimes it means make them really uncomfortable,” Kirk explained.
When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, he spoke in love to them. And they were offended.
“That was the most loving thing He could do because if you don’t call hypocrites out, they could easily keep going down that road to absolute forever destruction. We don’t want that,” Kirk said.
True love, he said, is tough love.
He added, “But we got to do it with gentleness and respect, checking ourselves first, asking God for wisdom.”
Romantic love is also unselfish. In 2 Samual, Amnon says he loves Tamar. But once she resisted his advances, he hated her.
“This selfish use of the word love is completely contrary to the biblical definition of godly love. To grow in and recognize true love takes time and a willingness to see beyond the excitement of infatuation,” said Life Hope & Truth editor Mike Bennett.
1 John 4:16 says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
If love is the essence of who God is, when you love like He does, then you are adopting some of His character. And who wouldn’t want to be loved by people in the way that God loves us?
Read Next: Kirk Cameron Reaches Day 60 of American Campfire Revival: ‘Love Your Neighbor’
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