In Love with Jesus?
Are you in love with Jesus? Many of today’s Christian music artists claim to be—as do millions of Christians who sing lyrics like “Let My Words Be Few“:
You are God in heaven.
And here am I on earth.
So I’ll let my words be few.
Jesus, I am so in love with You.
But should Christians be in love with Jesus? In a blog post entitled “Jesus, I’m NOT in Love with You,” Professor John Stackhouse answers absolutely not and considers expressions like these inappropriate and unbiblical.
Today our congregation was asked to sing, “Jesus, I’m in love with you”—a line that shows up, in one permutation or another, in several songs that occur frequently in our worship leaders’ rotation.
Well, I didn’t sing it. It’s wrong, and I try not to sing wrong lyrics.
First, I’m not in love with Jesus. The locution “in love with” is one I reserve for one person only: my wife. . . .
Second, it gives me the homoerotic creeps to declare that I am “in love with” another man. . . . A gender lens is interesting here, for a lot of men feel as I do (many have told me so), while many (not all) women seem to love telling Jesus that they are in love with him. I saw them, swaying with closed eyes and waving hands in the air this morning, singing exactly that. Maybe, indeed, they are in love with Jesus. But they shouldn’t be.
For the third point to make is a theological one. Jesus is not your boyfriend, not your fiancé, and not your eventual husband.
. . .
So I’m not singing to Jesus that I’m in love with him, because I’m not. I love him, and I aspire to loving him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. But I do not aspire to being in love with him, and I’m sure he understands.
I wish our worship leaders and songwriters did, too.
What do you think? Do you avoid language like “in love with” with reference to Jesus and regard it as appropriate only for the husband–wife relationship?
Read the whole post at Professor Stackhouse’s blog.
Like this post? Subscribe to our feed
.
Ken
Sounds like Prof. Stackhouse is a crusty old fogey who has a Pharisaical hangup. Get a life.
Oct 21st, 2007 10:08 pm
Jason
I do understand Prof.Stackhouses concerns with the language of love but I must say that they are misplaced. Being “in love” with Jesus in no way forces men to enter into a spiritual homosexuality and refusing to be “in love” with Jesus raises greater spiritual concerns by far. Jesus says in Luke 14:25-26 that if we do not love Him more than our mother, father, wife, children, brothers, sisters and our own lives we CANNOT be His disciples. AS a matter of fact you KJVers will see that Jesus says our love for Him should make it seem like we hate those others in comparison. We ARE called to enter into a passionate love relationship with Jesus that is even more intense than our love for our wives and our children!! One of the reasons why the church and individual Christians are so weak today is that we do not take the clear words of Christ here seriously. If you are tryin to live as a disciple of Jesus but you only love Him as intensely as you do your Dad (a common and comfortable kind of love for most heterosexual guys like me) you CANNOT be His disciple! Our love for Christ should burn brighter and more fiercely than anything else in our hearts and until it does we perhaps can call ouselves a cultural Christian but we cannot call ourselves His disciple.
Oct 29th, 2007 11:27 am
Stu
Perhaps it is time to coin more words for our english word, Love, just as the Greek language does. Misplaced connotations would be replaced by understanding.
Dec 6th, 2007 9:05 pm
DAT
How is it even possible that “in love” was ever introduced into “christian church worship”?
The fact that this has happened says that their is something terribly wrong. Something really obsecene and derrogatory i am sure.
Whatever opened this door is realy the problem.
Dec 10th, 2007 4:15 pm
Tiffany
YES! I am “in love” with Jesus - completely, and it is NOT a sexual thing. I love the way He talks - how He questions those who question Him - He relly gets the point across with few words (He didn’t have to preach me to death for sure), I love the way He just wanders off - usually when a guy gets lost(ie. going out in the dessert for days) its because he’s doing something he shouldn’t - but He and God are really tight. I am in love with Him because He can hang out with a bunch of losers (Pharisees, prostitutes, tax collectors…really vile people) and He doesn’t leave the evening in a bad mood - in few words He changed lives. I am in love with the fact that He loves and genuinely cares for everyone - seemingly random people! Me! And He totally loves to surprise me (some call this blessing) - with my friends I refer to them as bonuses. Love Christ, recieve a bonus - all the time! So yes, I am IN LOVE with JESUS CHRIST my very own, intimately known SUPERSTAR! So if you are not IN LOVE with Jesus then maybe you should trade in those beer googles for a pair of Jesus goggles then you can see His many, mighty, works and love and you too will fall IN LOVE with my Jesus.
Jan 3rd, 2008 6:17 pm
Nathan
Unfortunately, it can be a HUGE stumbling block to both unbelievers and young Christians when we use the term “in love” with Christ. “In love” in both the New Testament language (Greek) and any English dictionary, refers to romantic and/or sexual love. Even though hopefully no Christian actually feels that way towards Jesus, the use of the term implies that, and it is VERY misleading. Do not stumble the younger brethren, please. We are to love Christ with all our hearts, but a romantic or sexual relationship with Him is both sinful and blasphemous.
Jan 9th, 2008 8:50 am
Nancy M.
This is what He said about the church of Ephesus in Rev. 2:4 “Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” The word love here denotes agape love. (Contrary to popular understanding, the significance of agape is not that it is an unconditional love, but that it is primarily a love of the will rather than the emotions.)
(from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Our God loves from the will, not His emotions. And I believe He is saying that we must love Him the same way. Because we are human, we think that this love is emotional when it is not. Agape also was a feast showing brotherly love towards each other. So the whole concept to say that, Jesus I am in love with you is sexual is not at all what it means. We are proclaiming our committment to Him, our fervant, zealous adoration to whom He is. We recognize His supremacy in our lives and our hearts are zealous to know more about Him rather than what is of this world. We wish to be transformed each day more into His likeness, with our hearts yearning to keep connection with Him. Praise His mighty name!
Jan 22nd, 2008 7:15 pm
Deegee
Whilst agreeing wholeheartedly with remarks concerning sentimental songs do you think that Matthew 10:37 might be relevant here?
Jan 29th, 2008 1:03 pm
Josh W.
You know I think it was the Apostle Paul who wrote about not wrangling over words. The problem is that while we discuss the minutia we miss 2 important things. First, we miss the God we’re talking about. We are treating Him like this football we intellectually toss about. Second, we miss those He cares so deeply about. This is easily one of the reasons why the church is perceived as ridiculous and irrelevant. Don’t get me wrong. Words matter. However, conversations like this matter less when we really think about the enormity of God and the millions that have no relationship with him.
Apr 24th, 2008 3:33 pm