The Law of Love
One of my favorite books that I recently studied carefully is “The Law of Love” by Steve Young (Hall of Fame professional football quarterback and wise and prayerful Christian). I strongly recommend that each of you read his great book. My wife and I loved Steve Young’s book so much that we ordered a copy on Amazon.com to be sent to each of our children and to my siblings. In a few weeks, I studied through Steve’s book three times, and I will study it and ponder on it further. The Christ-Centered principles in his book will change your life and relationships in positive ways if you read it prayerfully and ponder on it. Below are a few of the great quotes from Steve Young’s book:
“The Law of Love is loving as God loves, seeking another’s healing, expecting nothing in return.” (If we are only serving others to get our own reward; then that is not real love. If we simply seek daily to connect to God and feel of his love and peace; and share His love with others; that works best for the benefit of everyone).
“How would you like to sum up the whole entire gospel, all in one word” … The Apostle Paul said it: ‘For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” Galatians 5:14 . . .The law of love is undefeated. It works on the football field, in business, in church, in every relationship. The law of love can provide a path forward when everything else has been exhausted. It can work in your life too.”
Steve quoted this statement from Joseph B. Wirthlin: “Love is the greatest of all the commandments – – all others hang upon it. It is our focus as followers of the living Christ.”
“As you seek to shift to a law of love mindset, seeking another’s healing with no expectation of anything in return, you may be surprised to see that healing comes to you as well.”
“The Church is a hospital. Sometimes you’re the doctor and sometimes you’re the patient, but healing is the desired outcome.”
“In the end, we cannot get where we want to be by pursuing a transactional relationship with God. Even if I’m as obedient as I can be, I am still an “unprofitable servant” .. I need a Savior to make up the difference between my best efforts and what God requires. Besides, if I’m only pursuing the rewards, I’m not necessarily becoming more Christlike, more loving. In fact, the opposite may be true. For example, we may see others as problems to be fixed (preferably in OUR way) instead of people to be loved. We may see other people as obstacles to our journey instead of relationships of love and support.”
“All the obedience in the world won’t do me a bit of good without charity, that pure love we’ve been talking about”.
Steve quoted Ezra Taft Benson, who taught: “The breadth, depth, and height of this love of God extend into every facet of one’s life. Why did God put the first commandment (to love God) first? Because He knew that if we truly loved Him, we would want to keep all of His other commandments.”
“What’s missing is the inviting, enobling gravitational pull that the law of love extends. It gathers all goodness and truth to it. By contrast, the law of obedience says obey or else, with a hammer or a threat, or even a deal: if you do obey, you’ll get the blessings. That transactional feeling toward God as we obey just doesn’t resonate. It’s not that we want to be disobedient; we sometimes just don’t appreciate the hammer of obedience, when obedience is presented to us in that way. I think people are naturally demand-resistant. . . . But the law of love is a pure invitation from God for something wonderful that could come into your life. When the law of love is unencumbered and pure, it draws you in as an invitation to love and appreciate all the laws. It is so beautiful because it elevates and ennobles all the laws”.
“Lose your life and you’ll find it (see Matthew 10:39; 16:25). As I seek healing for others, I am healed myself, exactly as the Savior said. This also means that we don’t have to be healed first in order to heal others. In fact, we can’t be healed ourselved until we heal others. That means we are all wounded healers, seeking to heal others and thereby becoming whole ourselves.”
“That’s why the law of love is so wonderful – – – because it sends me away from myself. It doesn’t tell me to quit trying to be better; it just asks me to stop thinking about myself.”
“Not only do people rebel against being forced, but that plan simply doesn’t work. I can force someone to keep the commandments, but I can’t force them to become Christlike in their hearts.”
Steve quoted Dieter F. Uchtdord, who said; “Fear rarely has the power to change our hearts, and it will never transform us into people who love what is right and who want to obey Heavenly Father.”
“You cannot change what you do not love. Heart-deep change doesn’t come from either coercion or incentives. It can only come through love. This is the way Christ invites us to change our hearts: not by force or bribes, but by loving invitation, by attraction.”
“What the Savior would want to know is the condition of our heart. He would want to know how we love and minister to those in our care, how we show our love to our spouse and family, and how we lighten their daily load. And the Savior would want to know how you and I grow closer to Him and to our Heavenly Father”.
“But the law of obedience is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, whereas the law of love pull obedience forward in a different way. Under the law of love, we remain obedient, but this time out of pure love for God and others, not for credit for ourselves.”
“We can’t truly achieve peace by selfishly seeking it. If we do, other people may just become impediments to our personal quest for peace. But if we truly desire the healing of others, then peace pours into our soul with the most astonishing rush of spiritual enlightenment and knowledge and perspective.”
“There are certain people that are placed in your life right now for you to heal. . . . What heals them is their relationship with heaven. You are the conduit and partner with God to get that done. The best way I know how to think about this is to bring a spirit of healing (love, kindness, understandinig, peace, patience, a listening ear) to every interaction we have, in every relationship we have.”
“We can’t be compelled to love. We can’t be compelled to more Christlike thinking and behavior. God never forces us to do anything. He only invites and encourages.”
Steve quoted an unnamed Christian church leader who taught: “The best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming unto Christ is the way we treat other people.”
“Almost every religious tradition that I’ve been exposed to or that I’ve studied has elements of the law of love. . . . There are people all over the world seeking this law of love. It’s instinctive, knowing that living without transaction is the higher law.”
“Because of my love for my wife, I give my marriage 100%, and Barb absolutely does the same. . . . Any long-lasting romance has to be rooted in selflessness. Honestly, my relationship with Barb keeps getting better and better. The law of love has protected our marriage in a way that has allowed us to thrive, despite everything that life can throw at us.”
“As always, Christ was our perfect example, when He forgave the Roman soldiers that crucified Him as He hung from the cross: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34). He asks us to join Him as we look down from our own agony and move toward forgiveness for those who harm us.”
“Some say, ‘Asking me to love my enemy? That’s too much.’ Never mind that in Jesus’s first major sermon of His ministry, the Sermon on the Mount, He invited us to ‘love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you’.(Mattnew 5: 44).
I hope you readers will order Steve Young’s book (available on Amazon.com), and study it prayerfully, and that you will love it as much as I do.