Having awakened from slumber long before dawn, I awoke to a riddle. Untestable by science and unprovable by reason, as uncontrollable as a volcano and whimsical as a gnat, it may be hidden, manifested, squelched or exalted. It is a biblical precept. Present since creation, it remains to this day. It is as mystical as it sounds, extending beyond the realm of physics and metaphysics. It is experienced more than it is explained. It cannot be measured, can fill the largest voids, and can permeate space where none exists.
What is it?
It is at the very core of who God is and is the very thing God wants manifested in us. It is love. Love is an unfathomable force, the essence of everything good and the hope of all things planned and needing improvement. Love, “no, not just for some, but for everyone”, has been pinned by biblical writers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and popularly written in these modern times by Burt F. Bacharach and Hal David, in their song made famous in 1965 by Jackie DeShannon – “What The World Needs Now Is Love …”. It is an undeniable truth, causing artists from many genres and through the decades since to record it and sing it on stages around the world.
Love is such a powerful force. It is used in so many contexts. But the love which is untestable by science and unprovable by reason is the love that permeates wholesome desire for the highest good and eternal relationship of people and God. In the song, the writer is presumptuous to think of telling God what is needed. But in expressions of the heart, people pray and make their requests known to God in such a fashion all the time. Even in holy writ, the Apostle Peter instructs his readers, “casting all your cares upon him because he cares for you”, literally is concerned and takes care of you. So, we can extend grace to the author and share the sentiment of the lyrics.
“What The World Needs Now Is Love …”
By Burt Bacharach and Hal David
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don’t need another mountain,
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,
Enough to last till the end of time.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.
Lord, we don’t need another meadow
There are cornfields and wheat fields enough to grow
There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine
Oh listen, lord, if you want to know.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.
No, not just for some, oh, but just for everyone.
Love is untestable by science and unprovable by reason.
God has shown his love and invites us to allow him to dwell in us that we may emulate him, imitating and reproducing that same essence of endearing power and meaning in life.
Romans 5:5-9, NIV
- And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
- You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
- Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
The Apostle John provides his beautiful pastoral exhortation on the boundless abundance of love, challenging us to let love thrive to, in, and through us.
1 John 4:1-21, NIV
- Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
- This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
- but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
- You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
- They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
- We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
- Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
- This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
- And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
- If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
- 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.
- This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
- 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.
- Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
- And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No, not just for some but for everyone.”
